Going big with Chinese medicine

A PLANTATION of 920,000ha has been cultivated with medicinal herbs, said Liu Yanhua, vice-minister of science and technology at the International Conference on Chinese Medicine which opened in Macau on Friday.   Beijing has set up 448 production bases in 18 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities for cultivating Chinese medicinal herbs, Liu said.   The ministry supervised a panel consisting of some 100 experts nationwide to draft guidelines for boosting the modernisation of the Chinese medicine industry in 1997, which was passed by the State Council in 2002.   (Creative Services for Prints and Posters were done by First Town Design