Tongrentang Goes International

 Spreading Tongrentang Culture

Tongrentang is distinctive in serving as both an economic entity and a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) cultural ambassador on the global market.

“In addition to selling our products, each of our overseas branches organizes lectures on how to preserve health through TCM concepts. To help foreign consumers understand and accept our culture we also set up TCM museums in bigger stores and cultural corners or cultural walls in smaller ones,” Ding said.

Last year Beijing Tongrentang jointly founded with APT Satellite Holdings Limited Asia the Beijing Tongrentang Mass Media (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., which runs an international channel to spread Tongrentang culture and TCM concepts, covering around 70 percent of countries and regions of the world. The channel started pilot transmissions in 2014.

Oversea Opportunities and Challenges

“Currently, most of Tongrentang’s overseas pharmacies are in Southeast Asia, but there are others in Australia, the U.K., Poland, Canada and the UAE,” Ding Yongling said. “We insist on the operation model in our pharmacies that puts equal emphasis on medical services and medicine products. We set up TCM health centers that provide all-round services to foreign consumers and enable them to experience treatments available in China.”

Tongrentang’s overseas development plan is to expand its presence in the global market by 2015 by opening at least 100 retail outlets in 22 countries and regions. In particular it looks forward to cracking the European and North American markets through its operation in Poland.