By Joyce Zhang (Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-30 14:49

Winter is the season for gao fang, a traditional Chinese herbal paste mixed with hot water and drunk as a major energy-reinforcing therapy. The processing is complicated, and now a mini-museum provides a detailed explanation.

Cai Tong De Tang traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pharmacy on Nanjing Road E. offers descriptions, illustrations, photos and scenes in clay sculpture depicting ancient Chinese processing herbs. Each step is shown.

Visitors can process herbals on their own with special tools, such as tie chuan, a traditional processor for grinding herbs with the feet.

"Appetite usually grows in cold winter, and the digestive system also functions more actively. Therefore, this is the best season for reinforcing therapy," says Yin Fuwu, chief TCM pharmacist at the Cai Tong De Tang pharmacy.

Li Hongzhang, a prominent prime minister of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), was a believer in herbal paste, according to Yin. A member of his family suffered coughing every winter due to his chronic asthma, but it was greatly relieved after taking ginseng and gecko (lizard) paste prescribed by Cai Tong De Tang in the winter. In appreciation for the seemingly magical herbal paste, Li inscribed his thanks on a plaque for the pharmacy.

Gao fang, a condensed semi-solid paste, is laboriously processed. Some is available ready-made, some can be made by pharmacists according to a TCM doctor's prescription.

After drying or other processing, the prescribed herbs must be cooked and filtered. Pharmacists will condense the medicine into a concentrate, adding sugar, honey, or gelatin to congeal it. When it cools it is put into container, traditionally a clay jar. Today we use the refrigerator.

Usually people take a spoonful or two of gao fang a day; it is mixed with a cup of hot water and drunk.

Opening hours: 9am-10pm
Address: 450 Nanjing Donglu