Begun as a pharmacy in 1874 by an official of the imperial court (and still a functioning factory and dispensary today), Huqingyu Tang Chinese Medicine Museum (Húqìngyú Táng Zhōngyào Bówùguǎn, 胡庆余堂中药博物馆) is as impressive for its architecture as for its contents.

Divided into five sections—an Exhibition Hall featuring a history of TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), a Medicine Preparation Hall, a Chinese Healthcare Clinic, a Medicinal Foods Restaurant, and a retail/dispensing area—the modest entrance belies a sprawling complex built in a quite unique style.

Taken as a whole, the museum offers a fascinating insight into Chinese medicine, not least some of its stranger practices, as well as showing something of the reverence TCM is afforded even in contemporary China.

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