North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will bring traditional Mongolian medical services to foreign citizens by 2011, local authorities said Thursday.

An international hospital will be built in Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia, this year and will begin providing traditional Mongolian medical treatment to foreign patients in October 2011, the regional health bureau said in a statement.

Traditional Mongolian medical treatment has attracted both domestic patients and tens of thousands of foreigners in recent years, said Bagatur, secretary-general of the regional Society of Mongolian Medicine.

The majority of foreign patients are from the neighboring Mongolia, with about 25,000 patients coming across the border to seek medical treatment every year, said Bagatur.

The traditional medicine has been proven effective in curing some chronic diseases and other diseases considered difficult to treat, such as circulatory system and cardiovascular disease.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2010)