On January 1, 1934, at No. 7, Xisibei
Avenue, a new branch shop belonging to the Le family was established, that
is Huairentang Drugstore. The founder was Le Dongping, who was the descendent of
Le Yinchuan, the heritor of the Tongrentang Drugstore. The name of the
"Huairentang" came from the "Huairentang" in "Zhongnanhai", named by the teacher
of Le Dongping for promoting its credit.
At the beginning , there were many
drugstores around Huairentang and their business was all very prosperous, which
affected the business of Huairentang. Le Dongping, as one shareholder of the
Tongrentang, followed the ancient medical prescription to roast and scorch the
raw material precisely; and attracted a vast number of buyers with its genuine
drugs at air price, high quality, a complete variety, enthusiastic and
thoughtful service. He selected superior material, established strict working
procedures, selected and compounded medicine all by himself, according to the
rules of the Le's old shop. In 1937, Le Dongping came across a doctor sitting in
shop who was distressed about his incapability of curing his grandson. Le was
confident of the efficacy of the drug "Niuhuang", and he administered three
pills of "Niuhuangzhenjing", "Niuhuangbaolong" and "Zhishengbaoyuandan"
respectively to the child, the pills were taken for several consecutive days. As
a result, the child recovered in a miracle, and after that the story quickly
spread far and near. So many people praised the drugs of Huairentang, and from
then on its reputation increased rapidly.
In order to promote the sale and broaden its
influence, Le Dongping even feted the four most famous doctors in Beijing --
Kong Bohua, Shi Jinmo, Wang Fengchun, Xiao Longyou, and invited them to sit in
his shop to promote fame of the shop. Huairentang had built a pharmaceutical
workshop at No. 9, Jiajia Garden, continued to use the Tongrentang's formula and
kept improving the material. Under the leadership of Le Dongping, Huairentang
Drugstore possessed a place among the many old famous drugstores in Beijing, and
its business became more prosperous with each passing day. It dealt with
decoction of herbal medicine, pills, powder, cream, as a sideline dealt with
ginseng, pilose antler, and Ejiao donkeyhide glue, retailed and was commissioned
to sell the famous, good-quality and special drugs from Beijing and other
cities. It was one of the large-scale drugstores in Xicheng District.
In 1986, the Xicheng District Branch of
Beijing Medicinal Materials Company invested RMB1 million in rebuilding
Huairentang, which restarted business in May 1989. Based on keeping the
traditional architecture, the rebuilt Huairentang broadened business room and
its building area amounts to 708 square meters. Its scope of business has
extended continuously, added retail and wholesale of Chinese traditional
medicines and Western medicines; drugs that it dealt with reached 1,337
varieties, and it has become a large-scale comprehensive
drugstore.