Like most traditional Chinese medicine clinics, the Dalian Shengu Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital specially prepares each patient’s prescription individually.

Traditional Chinese medicine preparation can seem haphazard when compared to its Western counterpart. Each of these drawers is filled with a different raw ingredient.

Jun Zhou has been practicing traditional Chinese medicine for 20 years.

Jun Zhou applies acupuncture needles to a patient.

A young traditional Chinese medicine apprentice at a Beijing clinic.

Tong Ren Tang, one of Beijing’s largest traditional Chinese medicine outlets.

At each of four traditional Chinese medicine clinics visited in Beijing, workers tried to impose a ‘no photos’ rule.

Various medicinal ingredients on display at a Beijing market.

Dried sea cucumbers are often used in traditional Chinese medicine. Sea cucumbers are also considered a dining delicacy.

Dried lizard for sale at Tong Ren Tang market in Beijing.

A stuffed pangolin, surrounded by stuffed sea turtles, deer, and other animals at a Chinese medicine clinic in Dalian. Pangolins are endangered species but continue to be poached since their scales and organs fetch high prices as traditional Chinese medicine ingredients.

Tiger farms, like this one in Harbin, are popular tourist destinations in China. Though tigers typically do not suffer horrendous farming conditions like bears, it’s reported that after a tiger dies on such a farm, its body is frozen. Conservationists believe tiger farmers are stockpiling the bodies in the hope that selling tiger organs and bones will soon become legal again in China.

At the Hanoi international airport in Vietnam, a pangolin poster warns travelers about the serious consequences of poaching. Despite these measures, animals are regularly smuggled across the Vietnamese border to China and beyond.

Much of the current animal stock for traditional Chinese medicine is sourced from forests in Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, conservationists fear that the “empty forest” syndrome will soon become a reality - that is, forests will be full of trees, but lack any animals.

A traditional Chinese medicine clinic in rural Vietnam. This clinic is located near a national park, and the animal ingredients it sells are almost certainly sourced from the park’s forests.

Pickled snakes for sale at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic in rural southern Vietnam.