The country's first Chinese-registered health center,  Samoa Chinese Health Center (SCHC), is eyeing athletes who will be in Samoa for the 2019 Pacific Games. 

Their new location at Tulaele Street doesn't only allow them the convenience of their new building, but being closer to the Tuanaimato Sports Complex gives them the opportunity to deliver their services to professional athletes. 

Two services that Dr. Dong Wei of the health center says the athletes might require are acupuncture and cupping treatments, which they offer with a 20 per cent discount. 

"Since the Pacific Games are going to be held in July, we believe that lots of professional athletes will need our services, we definitely believe that our acupuncture and cupping treatment are for professional athletes to help them reduce pain and improve performance, which is actually very useful and I guess that’s why we chose to move here," he told Samoa Observer.

"Our boss, John Yuan, he bought this land and he said that our own house is more convenient for us to arrange our own business but I guess that merit is that it is near to the sports complex.

According to Dr. Wei, he has seen more than a hundred patients come in for treatment since they opened in January, but said a lot of work still needs to be done.

"Yes it’s become more and more popular and more and more patients, but I have to say we still have a lot of work to do to introduce this treatment to local Samoans. 

"I guess some people who have been to overseas and are more familiar with this treatment but local people still have to get to know this treatment and we try to do that, introduce this treatment to them," he added.

He said they deal with pain, neck, back and joint problems, including headaches. They also treat sport injuries to quicken their recovery.

"And we also can help balance our bodies, so we can help improve body functions and balance body’s energies and other treatments to get emotional and physical effects; very useful to reduce stress and anxiety, reduce muscle tightness and sleeping," said Dr. Wei.

He said one of the main problems with patients especially with chronic problems is they fail to return for more much-needed treatments.

"That’s also one problem since some of our patients, those for chronic problems it needs a relative long course of treatment and sometimes they just come one time and they see and maybe the effects are not so obvious but I suggest they come to more sessions so that they can get better."

Standard cost for one session for acupuncture and cupping is $100 and $50 respectively, but will come with 20 per cent discount with even a better discount offer for those with chronic problems needing relative long course treatments, which the center is charging $60 a session from the third session.