[juiyout]

It may be bizarre. I grew up on traditional Chinese medicine in Taiwan. Vast majority I had was various types of plants like you mentioned in power, pellet, or pill form very similar to western medicine. There is some medicine extracted from animal products like musk, honey, etc, though much less used.

There are major efforts in Taiwan's universities to reinterpret TCM with contemporary science methodology. In term of manufacturing, the process is very far from the image of a "wet market". Acupuncture & Tuina, as part of TCM, have been applied on athletes around the world.

Due to my first hand account of TCM, I'm unable to dismiss TCM just as easily as you.

One thing I like to point out though, Taiwan's regulations on wild life and traditional medicine may be what China currently needs to curtail future potential outbreaks. As you know, TCM is tremendously popular in Taiwan yet Taiwan doesn't produce outbreaks like its neighbors does.