Hassan Sameh Hassan Elsayed, an international student at Tianjin University, recently shared on social media his first experience at Da Ren Tang's wellness center, where he tasted herbal tea, inquired about traditional Chinese medicine and chose a herbal bracelet.

"I once thought TCM was mysterious, limited to acupuncture and bitter herbal decoctions, but this visit let me experience Oriental wellness in a down-to-earth and interesting way," Elsayed, who is from Egypt, said.

Elsayed is one of several young global consumers embracing TCM light wellness, a trend that is moving from online social media buzz to real-world demand.

Data from Taobao and Tmall show that new Chinese-style health-preserving products have become a hit among young consumers, with their market size expected to have exceeded 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) in 2025. The category was selected as one of Taobao's Top 10 commodities of the year.

According to statistics released by China's General Administration of Customs last month, the export value of plant extracts reached $2.98 billion last year, accounting for over 58 percent of the total TCM export value, with the United States remaining its largest export market, accounting for approximately one-fifth of the total export share.

Meanwhile, the export of Chinese medicines to Kazakhstan last year surged 14-fold year-on-year, while exports to Singapore and Thailand rose 20 percent and 60 percent, respectively.

Da Ren Tang, a TCM brand with a 500-year-old herbal medicine heritage and which owns a trademark with a registration history of over 100 years, launched its innovative wellness center in Tianjin last year.

The center integrates professional TCM diagnosis and treatment with coffee leisure, cultural and creative product sales and immersive wellness experiences, attracting a large number of young local people as well as international visitors.

"The composite format of TCM diagnosis, leisure experience and cultural and creative products is the core for Da Ren Tang to break through the predicament of time-honored brands," said Song Jixiang, general manager of the e-commerce department at Da Ren Tang.

The wellness center covers consumer groups in the age group of 18 to 50, with the 18-35 age cohort accounting for about 50 percent, he said.

Take, for instance, the popular "Liuwei Dihuang Coffee", which adds a small amount of Chinese medicine "Liuwei Dihuang" into coffee. The herbal extract targets common problems such as the yin deficiency of the kidneys, which usually reflects in soreness and weakness of the waist and knees, night sweats and dry throat, caused by young people staying up late, over-thinking and facing great stress.

"Da Ren Tang's Liuwei Dihuang Pills are products of classic ancient prescriptions and a thousand-year-old classic formula for 'nourishing kidney yin' in TCM," Song explained.

This cross-border innovative product combines traditional tonic herbs with coffee, solving the consumption conflict between the "bitterness of good medicine" and young people's demand for convenience, good taste and fashion, and meeting their needs for convenience, aesthetic social interaction and emotional value, Song said.

Kang Qingye, a doctor who provided medical consultation for Elsayed, noted that the wellness center's integration of professional diagnosis and daily experience allows foreign consumers to better understand TCM. "Many international visitors initially come for interesting cultural and creative products or health-preserving drinks, and then gradually accept professional TCM diagnosis and treatment, which helps spread TCM culture in a natural way," she said.

Integrating the catering, retail, experience as well as cultural and creative functions, the wellness center has created a new format of "TCM+ consumption + experience", said Wang Lei, president of Da Ren Tang.

"The typical significance of cultural activation lies in making traditional culture touchable, tasteable and livable," Wang said. It liberates TCM from classics, pharmacies and museums into a cup of coffee, a piece of bread, a sachet or a bracelet, integrating into all aspects of daily life to achieve warm cultural penetration, she said.

"It builds young people's cultural confidence, packages traditional wisdom with national trends, and lets young people actively accept, love and spread TCM, cultivating cultural identity and pride," Wang added.

She emphasized that Da Ren Tang, as an explorer, protector, inheritor and developer of TCM culture, must bravely shoulder its mission and fully promote the high-quality whole industry chain development of TCM.

Da Ren Tang has carried out academic cooperation with international institutions such as the Italian National Institute of Health and the University of Milan, and joined hands with Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine-Modern TCM Haihe Laboratory and Zhejiang University-Yangtze River Delta Wisdom Oasis Innovation Center for joint research.

Zhang Boli, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and honorary president of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said "inheriting the essence and innovating in the right way" is the key to the development of TCM.

"We should keep the basic theories, logic and connotation of TCM unshaken, and constantly absorb the most advanced contemporary technologies for our own use," he said during the annual two sessions held in March.

He added that several foreign guests were deeply impressed by the TCM experience hall set up at the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, and that some had even taken the initiative to initiate cooperation projects, which shows that TCM has broad prospects for global communication.

Regarding the internationalization of TCM, Zhang said that TCM needs to focus on rigid clinical demands and consolidate the foundation of modernization while going global, and ensure "clear effective substances, clear mechanism of action and production meeting good manufacturing practice standards"