Simmered seahorse and boiled bat droppings are just some of the ingredients the oldest and largest maker of traditional Chinese medicine is hoping to mix into potions that will sell on the shelves of drug stores in Europe and the United States. That goal will be assisted by the greater international exposure afforded the Tong Ren Tang Group by the recent move of its subsidiary, Tong Ren Tang Technologies, to the main board of the Hong Kong stock exchange, after a decade on the Growth Enterprise Market, the board for smaller companies.
In a speech to mark the move, Mei Qun , vice-president and general manager of the group, said last week: 'The challenge we face now is to enlarge market share in European countries and the US.'
The company, a household name across China, is nothing if not experienced when it comes to the preparation of the exotic ingredients and the countless more mundane herbs and dried plants that are used to cure ailments from the common cold to gastroenteritis or rheumatism.
The brand has weathered the vagaries of the nation's modern history - the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the Japanese invasion, the civil war and then the many policy reversals under Mao Zedong when business was encouraged, then reviled, and finally re-emerged with the reappearance of Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s.
When Le Xianyang set up his first drug store in southern Beijing in 1669, he could not have foreseen that he was destined to build one of the country's most famous brands.
His shop quickly gained a reputation as a reputable supplier of medicine. Le was a strict taskmaster, extremely picky about the quality of the treatments he sold. His fame spread. In 1723 he achieved the greatest possible recognition - the Yongzheng Emperor appointed Tong Ren Tang as the official supplier of medicine to the imperial court. It did not take long for the shop to build a strong position in the market across the nation. It served eight Qing dynasty emperors over 188 years and its position as chief court supplier ended only with the death of the dynasty in 1911.
Tong Ren Tang's first two and a half centuries in business saw steady growth, but it confronted its greatest challenges in the next few decades as it rode China's post-imperial maelstrom.