Chengzhitang

The three-story wooden building with intricately carved latticework and dark, weather-worn pillars is Chengzhitang. Hu Xueyan, a legendary nineteenth-century merchant, established this pharmacy to provide traditional Chinese medicine to the residents of Hangzhou. The structure remains a rare, surviving example of late Qing Dynasty commercial architecture. Hu famously ordered his staff to keep the pharmacy open throughout the night, ensuring that anyone suffering from illness could secure medicine, no matter the hour, even if it meant taking a loss on the sale.