herbal medicines

Chinese traditional medicine (the Chinese herbal medicine) is a complete medical system that has been used to diagnose, treat, and prevent illnesses for more than 2,000 years. The Chinese herbal medicine market rose to 20 billion US dollars with export and import volume of 5.52 billion US dollars while the output is 337,000 tons with 8,000 categories in 1999. And in 2005, China exported Chinese herbal medicines to 164 countries and regions around the world, with export earnings reaching an all-time high of 830 million US dollars. The export earnings increased 14.55％ by the previous year. China still ranks first in the export of Chinese herbal medicines with around 700 million US dollars yearly. On the other side, China imported 240 million US dollars of herbal medicines 2005. In recent years, the traditional herbal medicine industry of China developed rapidly, with an annual increase around 17 to 18 percent and the total output that reached 80 billion yuan.