Zhong Jiefu Tang Pharmacy

The Zhong Jiefu Tang pharmacy was founded in the late Qing dynasty by the Xitang physician Zhong Daosun (also written Zhong Daosheng, born 1856), who trained under a Suzhou master before returning home to practise and open his shop; its grand, well-preserved premises are now a Zhejiang provincial cultural-relic protection unit.

Zhong Jiefu Tang rose to fame across Jiangnan for creating the celebrated food-as-medicine Eight-Treasure Cake, paired in folk saying with Beijing's poria cake, and remains a symbol of Xitang's traditional Chinese-medicine culture.

The pharmacy built its name on authentic herbs and traditional preparation; its Eight-Treasure Cake blends eight ingredients including yam, poria, job's-tears and malt into a confection adapted from a Ming-dynasty formula, at once a snack and a gentle remedy for the spleen and stomach, embodying the Jiangnan art of food as medicine.