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Yin Oi Tong
Founded circa 1796 by a Hakka medicine peddler, Yin Oi Tong grew into one of Southeast Asia's most prominent TCM establishments with seven shophouses. Rising rents forced the practice out after 124 years. The building became a heritage inn; the physician relocated. Two entities now share a 230-year name.
Yin Oi Tong (仁愛堂) traces its origins to approximately 1796, when Hakka medicine peddler Koo Suk Chuan arrived in Penang roughly a decade after Captain Francis Light established the British colony. What began as a small medicine shop on Pitt Street grew into one of Southeast Asia’s most prominent traditional Chinese medicine establishments, eventually occupying seven shophouses along Lebuh Penang and Lebuh China.
The brand’s modern story is one of separation. When George Town’s Rent Control Act was repealed in 2000, dramatic rent increases forced the TCM practice out of its historic Lebuh Penang premises after 124 years. Physician Chong Yit Leong (張日良), who has led the practice since 1981, relocated to Paya Terubong — taking the medical tradition with him but leaving the building vacant.
In 2013, Green Buildings Sdn Bhd invested RM3 million to restore 82A Lebuh Penang as Ren I Tang Heritage Inn — a 17-room boutique hotel with a ground-floor museum preserving Yin Oi Tong artifacts including gunny sacks of herbs, 1950s newspaper-wrapped medicines, and porcelain pill pots. The building was preserved; the practice continues elsewhere.
Chong Yit Leong has served as physician, acupuncturist, and herbalist for over fifty years. His daughter, Chong Chin Yee, also practises TCM — suggesting possible succession in a heritage where continuity is measured not in shopfronts but in knowledge passed between generations. The brand received GTWHI Platinum status in 2020 for entities operating over 100 years.
Note: Yin Oi Tong exists today as two distinct entities — a family-led TCM practice and an investor-owned heritage inn — sharing a name and a 230-year lineage.