Traditional pharmacy doubles as post office for coastal town

Traditional pharmacy doubles as post office for coastal town

2025-04-11

Near the Gaomei Wetlands in Taichung’s Qingshui District there’s a traditional Chinese medicine shop that’s half-a-century old. But the strange thing about it is it also doubles as a post office. They sell stamps, envelopes, and more. They also take registered mail and postmark letters. A husband-and-wife team run the entire operation. It all happened 20 years ago, when the general store next door closed down and the post office asked the pharmacy to take over.

You heard that right. Your eyes also don’t deceive you. This shop sells traditional Chinese medicine, but this customer is here to send a letter.

What kind of a pharmacy is this?

Customer
There are some older ladies, elderly people here by the coastline who need to send mail. So offering this service is convenient for them.

How did this pharmacy-slash-post office come to be?

Tsai Ming-sung
Owner
I suspect there aren’t many traditional medicine shops that double as post offices in Taiwan. We’re probably the only one that offers these services. Our location is convenient for the people who live in the neighborhood.

The shop has operated in Taichung’s Qingshui District near the Gaomei Wetlands for 50 years. Twenty years ago, the general store next door shut down. The post office asked the medicine shop to take over offering postal services. That’s how this strange scene came to be of one owner putting together medicine while another postmarks letters.

Lee Yi-chen
Owner
The letter carrier comes at noon. We have to at least wait for them to come and get the mail before we can leave. Sometimes people send registered or double-registered mail and are in a hurry. We have to take special care with these ones. We can’t make them late. That wouldn’t be OK.

The owners can’t leave the shop until the mail carrier comes. They strive to serve their neighbors who live far off near the shore, whether it’s medicine or mail services that they need.

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高美濕地50年中藥行身兼郵政代辦所服務地方鄰里

2025-04-11

台中市清水區，高美濕地附近，有一家經營50年的中藥行，奇怪的是，這家中藥行竟然斜槓郵務，裡頭賣郵票，信封等，還有代收掛號信，蓋郵戳，通通由老闆和老闆娘包辦，原來是20年前，隔壁雜貨店收攤，郵局請託中藥行接手，形成有趣景象。

沒聽錯，也沒看錯，明明走進的是中藥房，但這位小姐，是來寄信的。

到底這間中藥房，葫蘆裡賣什麼藥？

[[民眾]]
"海線這邊還是會有一些婆婆媽媽，長輩們會有寄信的需求，所以代辦所真的很方便"

中藥房斜槓郵務，到底怎麼回事？

[[中藥行老闆蔡明松]]
"中藥房做郵政代辦所，應該算是全台很少數了啦，大概只有我們這家在做這方面的業務這樣，服務地方，給大家就是在地的里民一些方便"

這家位在台中市清水區，高美濕地附近的中藥房，已有50年歷史，20年前隔壁雜貨店熄燈號，郵局請託他們接手郵政代辦業務，形成老闆抓藥，老闆娘蓋郵戳的有趣景象。

[[中藥行老闆娘李怡蓁]]
"中午郵差會來，我們最少要等到郵差來過，信收走了，我們才能離開店內，有時候人家寄這種掛號，雙掛號，人家是很急的信件，我們要特別幫人家注意，不能說讓人家延遲了，這樣就不好意思"

老闆和老闆娘，為配合郵差收信，平常日中午前，都不能亂跑。中藥房郵務代辦，服務地方鄰里，海線偏鄉，獨有風景。

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