China.org.cn reported that a 77-year-old resident surnamed Lu and his family make regular trips to Pan’an County. They go to buy traditional Chinese medicine, and to spend time in the county’s wellness resorts. The report said the family was a small sign of a wider shift. An ageing population in China now treats traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, as the centre of a wellness tourism trip. Pan’an sits in the mountains of Zhejiang Province, in east China. Its dense forest and heavy rainfall suit the growing of medicinal herbs, and about one in three of its residents work in the herbal medicine trade, the report said.
From herb fields to tour stops
Local traditional Chinese medicine companies have opened their production sites to visitors. They have turned planting bases and factories into stops on a wellness tourism circuit. Fangzheng Rare Medicinal Materials Development runs a base where more than 200 varieties of Chinese medicinal herb are grown. It has become one of the county’s better-known draws. Visitors arrive most days, some with tour groups and some driving in with their families, said Zheng Fangzheng, the general manager. He described many of them as elderly enthusiasts “specifically seeking out such experiences.” Da Sheng Pharmaceutical has taken the same route through industrial tourism. The company logged more than 100,000 tourist visits over the past year, and most were retirees with time to spare and an interest in traditional Chinese medicine culture, its general manager Cao Jian said.
Hospitals fold TCM into elderly care
Pan’an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine has built TCM therapies into its daily patient care. Its executive vice-president, Chen Yong, said that in Pan’an “wellness and travel go hand in hand.” The hospital reported a 62 per cent year-on-year rise in patients taking combined medical and elderly-care services alongside traditional Chinese medicine treatment, the report said. That 62 per cent figure is the firmest number in the account. It measures home demand, not any foreign patient volume.
The silver economy behind the trend
The interest tracks China’s ageing population. The country now has more than 320 million people aged 60 and above, the report said, a group state media calls the “new silver generation.” The report said it was healthier, better educated and more financially secure than earlier cohorts. Senior wellness “is shifting from a necessity to an active lifestyle choice,” said Xu Jiazeng, president of the Zhejiang Elderly Services Association. He expects it to pull tourism, sport and rehabilitation together. The silver economy is worth about 7 trillion yuan, or roughly 1 trillion US dollars, the report said. By 2035 the silver economy is expected to reach 30 trillion yuan, about 10 per cent of gross domestic product.
Policy, output and the export question
Policy is pushing the same way. China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, which runs from 2026 to 2030, names the silver economy as a priority. The general office of the State Council issued guidelines last year on raising the quality of TCM practice, the report said. Pan’an has grown medicinal herbs for more than 1,800 years, and in 2025 the local traditional Chinese medicine industry reported an output value of 14.53 billion yuan. The county is now extending that base into processed goods, from herbal snacks and drinks to personal-care and beauty products. One local firm turns bitter medicinal herbs into cooked dishes. A bubble tea shop has worked with the Pan’an TCM hospital since 2023 to blend local herbs into milk tea, and it sells about 300 cups a day.
Pan’an’s pitch stays domestic in the report, which offered no figure for international arrivals. That sets it apart from the parts of China that court foreign patients directly. Shanghai has leaned on TCM to draw overseas patients through its Longhua Hospital. Guangzhou has opened an international service centre built around the same tradition. The national bet on TCM as a medical tourism export runs alongside Pan’an’s home-market story without yet joining it. What pulls domestic retirees to a herb county is proximity, price and culture. That draw does not by itself bring in foreign patients, and the export claim needs a foreign patient count the source does not carry.
The checkable items sit in next year’s figures. Whether Pan’an’s TCM output value climbs above 14.53 billion yuan, whether the TCM hospital holds its 62 per cent growth in combined care, and whether the county ever reports a foreign patient count rather than a domestic one will show whether this wellness tourism trend stays local or turns into an export.