Cloud + offline fair injects new vitality into National TCM Materials & Pharmaceuticals Trade Fair

BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 53rd National Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Materials and Pharmaceuticals Trade Fair, a vital platform to promote communication in medical field in China, bore witness to how online-offline integration greatly boosted trading on the opening day on Friday.

With more than 9,000 medical producers present and over 30,000 pharmaceuticals exhibited at the fair, turnover at the fair exceeded 13 billion yuan on October 28.

Thanks to introduction of new media platforms and modern IT technologies such as virtual reality/artificial reality, and big data, the first cloud fair in this year enables professional purchasers to make deals online.

To facilitate international purchasers, the first world TCM online purchasing meeting was launched together with multiple online activities such as live streaming on Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu to boost trading.

Photo provided to Xinhua shows the real-time data on display at the trading big data exhibition venue of the fair.

Photo provided to Xinhua shows a worker from Zhangshu Qingren TCM pieces Co., Ltd. demonstrating the traditional processing technique of Chinese herbal medicine roots of herbaceous peonies. 

By inviting scholars, experts and representatives from renowned medicine producers to participate in a series of symposiums under the fair, TCM-related technology research, information disclosure and standards study have been pressed ahead to solve the existing difficulties and explore new development direction for TCM industry.

In recent years, Zhangshu City prioritized the development of TCM industry and cultivated a medicine industry development pattern integrating production, processing, sales, and scientific research as well.

As a traditional hub of TCM in China, Zhangshu City boasts 33,333.33 hectares of plantation areas for TCM materials and 406 medicine companies. Local medical industrial cluster has entered the top 100 most competitive county-level industrial clusters in China. (Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)