A visit to the famed Tong Ren Tang pharmacy

[doc]

They also sell western antibiotics, over the counter, that is, available without a doctor's prescription. You can walk in and tell one of the pharmacy clerks that you have a cough, and they'll give you something like Amoxicillin, which is used for bronchitis.

Interesting behavior, since there are many, many reasons, other than infectious, for a "cough".

They also sell herbal things for general health, much like our GNC stores in the US. People can by these herbs or lizard parts to mix with their food at home. Kind of like a health food store.

[Maestro]

YA!

DOC! great thread man sweet pics!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

but are herbal remedies all this clinic offers?

[doc]

A picture of some of the various components (lizards, horns, etc) that are used and sold in the pharmacy.

[doc]

The store part of the pharmacy. People can go in and purchase either the herbs, roots, plants, or animal parts directly, and add these components directly to their food, or, they can purchase premade medicines that have been ground up into pill form. Medical questions can be asked of these pharmacy technicians, who will "prescribe" the necessary medications or antibiotics, without any sort of physical examination or evaluation.

[doc]

The small back room where the herbs are boiled and packaged. The contents of the plastic bins are dumped into one of these three vats of water, whereby the herbs are boiled into a tea, for about an hour. They are then poured into the machine on the lower left, which dumps small amounts of the tea into sealed plastic bags. The bags can then be microwaved at a later date, so that the tea can be imbibed warm. The women to the rear is one of the pharmacy technicians, who, by the way, yelled at me when I snuck in and took this picture.

[doc]

In preparation for the commercial boiling and packaging, all the prescribed herbs, in their necessary concentrations, are put together in a plastic bin.

[doc]

Another view inside the Tong Ren Tang pharmacy, showing the cubicles where patients visit the doctors on call, to get their evaluation and diagnosis. The Tong Ren Tang pharmacy system is one of China's most revered pharmacy / clinics, having been in existance for over two hundred years. These cubicles are fairly small, having only a desk and some chairs inside. No exam table is present. The typical TCM exam includes evaluation of the skin, tongue, and pulse. Diagnosis is made based upon evaluation of that, and, interpretation of medical history.

[doc]

The inside of the Tong Ren Tang pharmacy / clinic. All the various herbs are kept within the wooden boxes on the wall. After visiting the TCM doctor, a "diagnosis" is made, and a "prescription" is filled out, which describes the various herbs and their concentrations to be used. The different herbs are then taken out of these boxes, by hand, weighed so that the proper amount is put into the final mixture, and then either wrapped in paper, so that the patient can then take them home and boil them into tea, or, brought to a different facility so that they can be boiled and packaged into individual serving sizes.