Despite the age of its recipes, Chinese medicine -- which continues to thrive among Hong Kong's seven million residents -- is not standing still.

A growing number of young university-trained practitioners are pioneering changes within the industry, providing traditional remedies with modern efficiency.

Sofie Lau may work as a paediatric nurse and she may live in the modern, fast-paced city of Hong Kong -- but when it comes to treating her own ill-health, she prefers ancient remedies.

She pours a pack of brown powder into a glass of hot water, stirs it well and drinks the murky mixture down, hoping the traditional Chinese medicine will cure her feverish cold.

Lau, 25, says it feels more natural to turn to Chinese medicine.

"I've tried Western medicine, but usually I feel very tired after I take it. Even though I can recover very fast, I will become sick again afterwards," she explains at the Chinese medicine centre where she has come for treatment.

"But I can't just sit in front of the stove and watch herbs boiling for eight hours. I'm busy with work, if we had to boil the herbal soup like we did in the past, perhaps I wouldn't consider Chinese medicine as an option."

While Chinese medicine masters used to issue instructions for the tedious hours-long process of mixing, soaking, brewing and distilling herbs, nowadays practitioners prescribe ready-made powders.

The complicated brewing process is even outsourced, with orders made over the Internet for doorstep delivery.

It is the latest development for a practice that is thousands of years old and was traditionally passed down through the generations but was regulated in 1999 as the city eyed becoming a Chinese medicine trading hub.

Read the original:

Hong Kong prescribes new dose of old Chinese medicine