And in more modern times, in the 1920s, dispensaries in Shanghai even took on the further role of making medicines themselves.

The Great Eastern Dispensary was probably the most famous and influential of these institutions.

Established by Huang Chujiu in 1890, it was a totally Chinese-owned drug store. Huang may be familiar to readers as the boss of The Great World - the most fabulous venue in 1930s Shanghai - but few know that it was actually in the pharmaceutical industry that he first accumulated his wealth.

From a family heritage, Huang started to practice medicine with his father from his early childhood. The practical knowledge of curing eye diseases helped him greatly in successfully establishing a small ophthalmology clinic in Shanghai.

Thanks to the miraculous curative effect of his home-made eye ointment, he soon became extremely popular in his neighborhood and was even rewarded as a miracle-working doctor.

The sharp-sighted Huang soon took advantage of his prestige to develop his practice into a business by quickly moving his base to the more bustling neighborhood of the Consulates (Jinling Donglu now). As Huang had broadened the scope of his business by also selling Western drugs, the store was renamed the "Great Eastern Dispensary" and the medicines sold there were given the brand name "Wanxiang" which in Chinese had the auspicious meaning of an everlasting prosperity.

The flourishing business enabled Huang to settle down on Hankow Lu where the rent was three times higher. Huang soon realized, however, that selling Western medicines would not suffice for the business and it would fare better if it also made medicines to its own formulae.

Having bought original medical prescriptions from a pharmacologist named Wu Kunrong, the ingenious Huang added some additional ingredients and named the new tonic "Yale Stimulant Remedy". With the claim to be a medicine developed by Dr. T. C. Yale from America, the tonic sold surprisingly well, with turnover exceeding US$1,000 a day. Other products, such as a blood tonic, also won great popularity, and some of these were even sold further a field, to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

With his augmented capital, Huang had the old building refurbished in 1908, with the second floor functioning as a pharmacy department while the ground floor served as a shop front.

The stores were reshuffled into a stock-holding company in 1915, knocking out nearly all its competitors. Its leading position in Shanghai's pharmaceutical industry was established step by step through mergers with the Zhonghua Pharmaceutical Company and later with the International Dispensary.

Before liberation in 1949, the company continued taking an active part in expanding its famous Chinese brand all around the world.

(Shanghai Star May 9, 2003)