According to the store's assistant manager Sun Tie, it is the best preserved of the shops built during the Qing Dynasty. Its significance in South China is equivalent to Beijing's famed Tong Ren Tang store in North China.

It is now a national level protected cultural relic. In 2006, "Hu Qing Yu Tang Chinese medicine culture" was included on the list of national intangible cultural heritage.

"It is the most beautiful herbal medicine store in the country," Sun says. "It is also the city's business card for tourism."

Like other herbal stores of its time, Hu Qing Yu Tang had a shop at the front and a workshop in the rear. The front remains a shop today, but the back has been turned into a museum. One part showcases the history of the shop and the development of Chinese herbal medicine in Hangzhou. Another displays samples of herbal medicines.

Unlike other drugstores, not all visitors come to buy medicine. The historic store is open to tourists and many Hangzhou locals spend their leisure time there as if were a neighborhood park.

"A lot of old people bring their lunch to eat here and then stay until the shop closes," Sun says. "As herbal medicine used to be made inside the shop, people can smell the fragrance from a distance. It seems some old people think it is healthy to sit around Hu Qing Yu Tang."

People say they feel themselves calm down when they get inside such an old Chinese structure, where every corner smells of traditional culture.

Travel agencies have even designed a two-hour visit to the store that includes a demonstration of how to make traditional herbal medicines. A professional Chinese doctor is on hand to explain the process.

Hu Qing Yu Tang has also passed down many of its easy-to-use recipes. The store sells ready-made herbal combinations for colds, headache, high blood pressure, indigestion, insomnia and even for a fish bone stuck in the throat.

Hu Qing Yu Tang now has four clinics with 150 Chinese medicine doctors and equipment comparable to a provincial-level hospital.

Assistant manager Sun notes that good doctors, the herbal medicine culture, traditional Chinese techniques and health food meals are four important legacies from the original store.

In the same area of Hangzhou, a total of five traditional Chinese herbal medicine stores all have a long tradition.

"Traditional Chinese medicine was inherited very well" in the city, Sun said. "It is available and winning much acclaim."