This study quantifies and compares patient characteristics in outpatient acupuncture. Prospective primary source evidence was gathered at two prominent outpatient acupuncture clinics in Beijing, China (n = 563, n = 233). The most common condition was Bell’s palsy, which represented 20.6 and 25.3% of total cases at the two clinics, respectively. The second most common condition was cerebrovascular accident (CVA) rehabilitation. These treatments represented 11.9 and 12.0% of treatments at the two clinics, respectively. Other trends at the clinics included the following: (i) neurologic complaints predominated; (ii) doctors see a large number of patients per day; (iii) the majority of patients overall were female; (iv) the majority of patients treated for CVA rehabilitation were male. As cultural and socio-economic differences in perceptions of acupuncture exist between peoples of different countries, this study also compared patients’ main complaints in China to available data on acupuncture patients seen in other parts of China, Germany, the UK, Australia and the USA. Except for the German clinic data, Western clinic acupuncturists saw more musculoskeletal complaints compared to China, where neurological complaints predominated. Another significant difference between Asian and Western clinics was the number of patients seen per hour. While acupuncturists were reported to see 1.2 patients per hour in US clinics, acupuncturists at the two Beijing clinics saw 7.0 and 10.4 patients per hour, respectively.