NPR’s Louisa Lim reports on Morning Edition that American tourists are traveling to China in greater numbers not for the Great Wall or the Xi’an soldiers, but for experimental medical treatments not offered back home:

China is gaining popularity among a new breed of travelers: patients with incurable conditions who are visiting the country to receive experimental stem-cell treatments not offered in the United States.

One company is now claiming a medical breakthrough, advertising that its treatments are restoring vision to blind children. It has ignited a firestorm of controversy in both China and in the U.S. …

Dr. Sean Hu, the 40-year-old chairman of Beike Biotechnology, is a medical doctor-turned-entrepreneur with a doctorate in biochemistry from a Swedish university.

Less than three years ago, he set up Beike. Since then, 3,000 patients — most of them from China — have received Beike’s stem-cell treatments for a wide range of conditions. He says 70 percent have seen improvements, but he admits he can’t explain why.

Listen to the report here.