Nicknamed "King of Medicine in the South of the Yangtze River", Huqingyu Drugstore was founded on Qinghe Street of Hangzhou in 1874 (the 13th year of Emperor Tongzhi’s reign in the Qing Dynasty) by Hu Xueyan, a "Red-Top Official Merchant". Areas around Qinghe Street had been a special zone dedicated to medicine stores from the Southern Song Dynasty, when Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou) was made the capital city, to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The well-known stores include Baohetang of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Yangxin Medicine Chamber of the Ming Dynasty and Huqingyutang, Yezhongdetang and Fanghuichuntang etc of the "six famed stores" in the late Qing Dynasty. It is worth mentioning that Huqingyu Drugstore fully carried out the medicine-making techniques and industry standards stated in the Prescriptions of the Bureau of Taiping People's Welfare Pharmacy drafted by the authorities of the Southern Song Dynasty. It is fair to say that Hangzhou is the origin of "ancient Chinese pharmacopoeia" and Huqingyu Drugstore is an inheritor of the great tradition.

The essence of traditional business practices has been retained in Huqingyu Drugstore. Fore more than 130 years, the store has been adhering to the principle of "never cheating" based on traditional Chinese ethics and medical culture. Meanwhile, the operating philosophy and store rules with "no cheating" at the core have been established.