Gong Hui Rong Acupuncture

READ THIS WHOLE REVIEW:
I have been referring to Unilocal for years, and never have I written a review. After the service I received today, I absolutely had to.
This doctor was EXTREMELY attentive and obviously experienced. I went into his office today with severe upper back pain (my tolerance to pain is far beyond the «average person,» and I am not one to complain unless it is really that bad e.g. I’m a duct tape over stitches person) and after receiving treatment, the pain has reduced significantly.
I am a 25 year old white male (not that it should ever really matter… but in some circumstances it may) and while there was a slight language barrier, the doctor MADE SURE I understood everything he was telling me… including pricing ($ 47.50 for treatment + back pad).
For 3 days straight, my pain had doubled, day after day. I had been able to pinpoint the location where I felt the pain was coming from and explained all my symptoms to Dr. Gong, including the fact that lifting a coffee pot this morning shot pain down my spine. After checking up and down my back and neck, he was able to located a few additional places where I had not even realized pain was coming from. One location in my upper neck he seemed to focus on — which seemed odd to me, however, he couldn’t have been more correct.
During treatment, he started at that location, as time went on, I could feel the pain (throughout my back) decreases a little bit at a time. By the end of the treatment
(ONLY ONE SESSION), my pain had decreased by about 60% (I am writing this just 30 minutes after leaving his office). I could not believe that the pain in my back was additionally caused by something in my neck. This showed me that he truly understood the practice, the human body and obviously listened attentively to my symptoms.
The worst thing you could do if you are in pain — would be considering going somewhere else. I’d 100% suggest giving him a try. I could tell he honestly cared about reducing my pain and made sure I was «ok» many times. Great person as well as a great doctor. I wish I could give 6 stars.

I’ve been going to Dr. Gong for more than 20 years — on and off. He is courteous and is truly there to assist you if he can. His wife, Tina runs the front office. Smells like the typical herbal places in Chinatown when I grew up in the 1970’s. It’s a small office but just enough to treat his patients with the care they need. He is honest and will tell you if he cannot assist you or if you should go the western medicine route. My first and only acupuncturist.
Only reason he gets a 4-​star is because after all these years… I still can’t get used to the herbal smell. My pet peeve… may not be yours. I have recommended people to him.

I always hesitate of giving a professional a 5 stars. Every situation is different and every person is different. If you have seen a physician, optometrist, or dentist, you will know.
I’ve seen Dr. Gong before Unilocal exist. My mother in law, brother in law and friends have seen him before. In the case of acupuncturist, I didn’t want to give a comment until I truly know how good he is. After over 10 years, I think I can write a review about him.
I’ve experienced back problem off and on through my life since I was in my mid 20s. I’ve seen many acupuncturist and Dr. Some even was known by many as god of Dr (Chinese medicine). To be fair, some of them were able to reduce my pain, however, never able to effectively rid of it.
Couple of weeks ago, I played hoops but forgot my back support belt and somehow, I reinjured my back and have excruciating pain on my lower back all the way down to my thigh, I couldn’t really sit at all but was able to walk and laydown without pain. and my right arm and shoulder also hurt a lot. Same as before, after seeing him, immediately, my butt and thigh doesn’t hurt anymore, but my lower back still has some pain which I think it should take more than one treatment to heal it.
To be frank, my grandpa once knew an acupuncturist from China who used to treat Chinese leaders who treat my grand pa and he immediately cure his habit of smoking for over 50 years… he tried for 10 years and couldn’t cut the habit so I know there are some really amazing acupuncturist who’s very legit but that may be 1 in a billion that truly exist. I’ve visited many acupuncturists over the last 20 years, some very famous and expensive one but I have to say he is one of the best I’ve seen.
Pros:
Dr. Gong always tried to massage my tendon and muscle before treatment, and frankly, just the massage is worth the money. I’ve been to other Chinese Dr. who focus on massage therapy and those are nothing like how he did it. Strong and precise.
Great service… Mrs. Gong always help patients to feed the meter…
Cons:
Locaiton — It’s a bit far especially I live in the peninsula, but I guess once you found a good and reliable Dr., you have not much choice.

I’ve been using Dr. Gong’s service for the past 15 years, and I always recommend him to my friends. In fact, I’ve brought people over before!
My experience with Dr Gong is always good and the treatments were pretty effective in curing my tennis wrist and my heels/​ankles that I injured from martial art practices.
Treatments with Dr. Gong usually runs from 30 to 50 or so. Meanwhile, I’ve also tried a few acupuncture places in Berkeley while I was living there. The East bay ones I visited are charing an average of 125+ and their effectiveness is not nearly as good as Dr. Gong’s.
If you’re not too against the smelly Chinese herbs, Dr Gong always offers an option to have your injured joints wrapped in herbs with bandages over it after his massage and acupuncture treatments. I highly recommend taking it. Because of the the herb is wrapped onto your injured spots with bandages, you either expect to need to cover your injured spots in plastic bags when you go into the shower or you just have to shower before visiting. Dr. Gong.
Last but not least, I highly recommend calling in to make an appointment before visiting. Sometimes they can get very busy, especially on weekends

Came here after a car accident left me with whiplash and a majorly sore back. The doc’s English is heavily accented, but I understood him just fine. He massaged my sore spots with an herbal oil and HOLY, this man has the strongest hands ever. Had to ask him to ease up because I was about to start crying. Acupuncture was after that and he attached some electrical stimulation thingies to some of the needles which felt… weird. It’s a very small space and you can hear everything that goes on in the other rooms and the front reception area, but the doc and his wife are extremely sweet and that makes up for the small rooms and loud noises!

Ive been suffering from runner’s knee, and it was crippling me from walking and running. I went to the doctor and they wanted to cut me open just to take a ‘look’ i said forget it. I started asking around, and internet surfing regarding what other alternatives i could do to ease the pain. my coworker told me about acupuncture, and she recommended me this place.
I’ve only been twice but his treatment works so well that I barely have to go! He’s amazing and it work has me running again, so excited cuz the sun is out now. He does have an accent but completely understands what you are saying.
And the price is completely fair!

Another wonderful visit to Dr. Gong. He took me on an emergency basis and pinpointed the problem. After a very intense massage and acupuncture treatment I am on the road to recovery and woke up somewhat pain free this morning. A treasure in the Outer Richmond.

I’ve been seeing Dr. Hui-​Rong Gong for over 10 years now and I love getting acupuncture from him.
About 10 years ago, I moved to a new roommate situation and was sore from moving all my boxes and my new roommate, who was on permanent disability leave and in constant pain, recommended I go see her acupuncturist out in the Sunset district as she saw him on a weekly basis and she thought he was a miracle worker.
So, I headed across town to see Dr. Gong who is a traditional Chinese doctor who practices Chinese medicine with all of the funky smelling herbs. As this was the first time I had ever been into a non-​Western doctor’s office, I was a bit taken aback by all of the unusual smelling herbs and the small space, and the fact that he greeted me in the «lobby» space, but once Dr. Gong started working on my sore muscles, I became a believer and the environment didn’t matter to me.
Apparently, there are a lot of different types of acupuncture practices and while I don’t know what the type that Dr. Gong practices is called, it works for me.
First, he took me into one of the rooms and spent 5 minutes or so asking me about my problem and touching some of my sore muscles — mostly on my shoulders, neck and arms. Then he gave me one of those velcro mini wrap towels that women wear and told me to take off my top, but to leave on my bra and to put on the towel wrap and to lay on the table — whicih was like a massage table with the section for your face when you lye on your front, and he’d come back once I was situated.
When he came in, the first thing he did was feal all around my back, neck and arms to find out where all the painful spots were, but to my surpise, he also pressed a lot of other spots that were painful, that I had not realized were also sore.
Once he determined where all the pain was, he put a heat lamp on my back and used some kind of oil to do a fast, somewhat strong massage on all of the painful areas. He did the massage for about 15 minutes or so.
Then he again pressed around my back to confirm all of the painful spots and then he put acupuncture needles in the sore spots. He probably put in about 20 needles.
Then he clipped these little wires to each of the needles and plugged them into a box which sent small, adjustable electrical currents in a pulsing fashion — through the needles and into my sore muscles. Dr. Gong made sure I was comfortable and that the electrical current wasn’t too strong, then he left me for about 40 minutes to let the electrical currents ease my muscles. Both he and his assistant came back into the room a few times each to check on me and to make sure I was okay and that the current wasn’t too strong.
After that treatment was over, he took off the wires and took out the needles and then one one particularly painful area, he put these herb smelling patches and told me to leave them on for about 3 days so they could continue to work on my sore muscles.
He said I might need to come back 1 or 2 more times, but that one session did the trick and I felt so much better after that. I was a bit light headed and woozy when I first got up off the table and felt that way for an hour or two afterwards — kind of like you sometimes feel after getting an intense massage — but I felt great after that and he made all the pain go away.
That was about 10 years ago and I’ve been going to Dr. Gong ever since for various aches and pains. And, I’ve sent tons of my friends and relatives to see him for things like chronic back pain to sciatica and my friends have always had good results with Dr. Gong as well.
Another great thing about Dr. Gong is that he can usually fit you in on the day that you call and he is open on Saturdays. While he does work with some insurance companies, he also just accepts cash payments if your insurance company doesn’t offer acupuncture benefits. I usually pay between $ 40 and $ 45 — depending on if I get the herb patches on my muscles in addition to the acupuncture.
Lately though, I think he may be working shorter hours as he seems to be open mostly between 8am and 12noon.
The only reason I am not giving him a 5 star rating is because his office is more geared towards «eastern» patients so it is a bit different for this western gal and because his accent is pretty strong and I sometimes have difficulty understanding him or his assistant over the phone when I call for an appointment. However, his acupuncture treatment gets a A+.

My father is a big fan of this doctor. I really don’t know why. When he got a bout of the stomache flu, the dr. said there isn’t really cure for this that he’d have to ride it out but he gave him 3 bags of tea anyway (for $ 20+). Huh? If there’s no cure, why are you feeding him tea?
My mother went to him for a sprained thumb because he is an acupunturist. Not only did he proceed to scare the sh! t out of her by saying that she may need surgery if it doesn’t work but he gave her this smelly paste for her sprain. He bound the paste in a too short bandage so it was ooozing out of her hand (how chinese cheap!).
It didn’t work so she had to go to another acupuncturist who gave a more accurate diagnosis.
Oh yeah, the doctor’s wife also short changed my father once. Not impressed with this place!