Chen Zhen and his wife pose in front of their TCM factory in Budapest, capital city of Hungary, May 19, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chen Zhen and Wang Fan are a Chinese couple who opened a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) company in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

Chen has a PhD in medical sciences. He arrived in Central Europe as a clinical physician at the end of the 1980s. He noticed while working in Hungary that patients were prescribed very strong synthetic medicines even in the case of mild illnesses. These not only have very strong side effects, but they also cost a lot of money. In order to relieve patients' pain, Chen decided to use TCM to treat them.

In 1993, Chen and his wife founded their TCM company named Oriental Herbs. After more than 20 years' development, the company is the only TCM factory that adheres to the standards of GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) in Europe, and has successfully registered more than 90 patents in 17 European countries.

Now, the company's medicines are sold in 5,000 pharmacies in the EU, and more and more European customers are willing to accept the herbal products.