NEW YORK, June 13 (Xinhua) -- World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion Societies (WFAS) has launched its first heritage base in the United States on Tuesday in New York City, home to by far the biggest Chinese-American population of any city proper in the country.

WFAS President Liu Baoyan, Secretary General Ma Ying conferred the plate of "WFAS TCM Heritage Base in New York" to American Acupuncture-Moxibustion Medical Association (AAMMA) and New York Natural Acupuncture-Moxibustion Health Center (NYNAMHC) at an awarding ceremony held in Flushing Chinatown, NYC's borough of Queens, Tuesday evening.

The traditional Chinese medicine heritage base in New York will serve as a training platform for high-level American acupuncturists as well as a research and innovation center for the ancient therapy which was originated in China and becomes increasingly acceptable in the world, said Liu in a speech.

Liu also extended his invitation to the U.S. TCM practitioners to attend a special event to be hosted by WFAS in November in UNESCO in Paris, France, marking the eighth year since Chinese Acupuncture-Moxibustion was included in the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The New York base is the 8th of its kind that WFAS has set up in and outside of China in recent years, Liu said. The other seven are based in Toronto of Canada, Budapest of Hungary and Heilongjiang, Shaanxi, Beijing, Macao, Zhejiang of China.

The AAMMA, established in 1970s, is headed by U.S. TCM pioneer David P.J. Hung, who has spent nearly half a century promoting the legalization of Chinese acupuncture in the United States. In 1976, Hung became the first Chinese doctor to receive an acupuncture license from the New York State Department of Education.

The NYNAMHC was set up in 2004 by Dr. Chen Decheng who has 11 years in total of medical education and received his Bachelor's, Master's and Ph. D Degrees in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine before moving to the United States.

The WFAS, founded in 1987 and headquartered in Beijing, China, is a non-governmental international union of acupuncture associations and organizations. It has official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1998.