Name: Chow Tak-ching Age: 65 Occupation: Chinese 'doctor' for Kiu Kong Medicine Company and Wu Chun Yuen Medical Company.
Career path: I was born in China and my father was a Chinese doctor so I started learning this profession when I was very young. I finished school at about 14 and started working full-time with my father in his shop.
It took me two years to learn the names of all the Chinese herbs and to recognise the ingredients we use in our medicines and at least another three years to be able to diagnose patients and prescribe appropriate medicines.
Chinese doctors are able to diagnose an illness from feeling a patient's pulse, but this is very complicated and takes a long time to learn. For years, my father would instruct me as he let me feel the pulse of his patients and I would come up with a diagnosis and prescription.
When I was 19, I came to Hong Kong to work in a friend's medicine shop and I've been here ever since working as a consultant for pharmacists here.
Chow's day: I work seven days a week, spending my morning at Kiu Kong Medicine Company in Wan Chai and then at Shau Ki Wan in the afternoon.