Fang Huichun Hall on Hefang Street used to be a very familiar place to me. For nearly two years, I visited almost two to three times every month—basically once a week. I always went there to pick up Chinese medicinal herbs for decoction. At that time, a classmate of mine was undergoing health conditioning and needed to drink herbal decoctions, so we had to buy the herbs and prepare the medicine ourselves. During that period, I drank Chinese medicine more frequently than ever, and I even became quite skilled at brewing it. I could roughly weigh out the herbs myself—not using grams like today, but using the traditional units of “qian” and “liang.” It was a pretty cool experience!
Back then, both Fang Huichun Hall and Hu Qingyutang were options for getting Chinese medicinal herbs, but Fang Huichun Hall was the most convenient. Even if you weren’t seeing a doctor there, you could still come in just to pick up herbs. The staff were always friendly and tried their best to help quickly because they really had a heavy workload.
As for the herbs themselves, many of the ones I frequently needed for common prescriptions had better quality and prices here. So I mostly came to this shop and rarely switched to others, even though Hangzhou has quite a few long-established traditional pharmacies. Beijing Tongrentang also has a branch on Hefang Street, but I almost never went to the Hangzhou Tongrentang.
Local time-honored pharmacies still have the advantage of location, familiarity, and a sense of trust. It just feels right to buy herbs from a local shop. Also, Tongrentang’s prices are noticeably higher. Even if you don’t need to buy herbs or see a doctor, it’s still worth going in for a visit—the atmosphere and interior style are full of traditional charm. You get to experience what pharmacies used to feel like in the past!
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