Various shops at Beijing Pedestrian Street are closed one after another after ten o'clock every night, while the shopping crowds disperse, and the pedestrian street becomes quiet gradually after a noisy day. Careful pedestrians may discover a service window under the big Jianmin Pharmacy sign, which is just the Jianmin Pharmacy medicine department at night, is still left for people at the junction of Beijing Road except well-known restaurants where consumers sometimes visited.

The lamplight at the less than 2-meter-wide window is not very dazzling in the midnight at Beijing Road at present, but has been the imperishable lamplight in late night at Beijing Road in Guangzhou since 1971. It was quiet and dark at midnight at Beijing Road and even in Chinese cities 46 years ago, and so you can see how much courage policymakers needed when they set up the window in those days.

However, now it is meaningless to ask whether the decision was made due to prudence or inadvertence. More importantly, Jianmin Pharmacy 24-hour service opened the door to the service all over the country, which help Jianmin Pharmacy win public praise in Guangzhou. Furthermore, it is commendable that both the window and the lamp have not been closed for 46 years. The lamplight at the window was on all night even though the shop was closed for renovation for two months because it prepared for the celebration of the 60th anniversary.

A citizen's son had stomachache at midnight in 1980s, and then he moved round several streets by bike to seek a pharmacy. Meanwhile, nobody answered him, even though he knocked at doors of some pharmacies with signs in the windows which said "selling medicine at midnight". At last, he bought medicines from the window of Jianmin Pharmacy medicine department at night, and then said with great emotion, "It is so wonderful that Jianmin Pharmacy created new style of service and I hope it could spread all over Guangzhou!"

As China moved into the 21st century with the increasing improvement of internationalization, the window of medicine department at night welcomed a foreign guest who was anxiously talking and gesticulating to the attendant. The attendant didn't know English and how could he help the guest? With a brainwave suddenly, he communicated with the guest through his smart phone, and then recommended the guest the suitable medicine. At the next midnight, the foreign guest went to Jianmin Pharmacy medicine department at night, and gave the attendant the thumbs up, "Very good!"

What the medicine department at night supplied developed from family medicines including Baoji Pills, mercurochrome and gentian violet to dozens of emergency treatment drugs and common medicine after forty-six years.

In order to make it convenient for the people, the hotline of selling medicine at night was especially set up to answer citizens' questions. The services of Jianmin Pharmacy medicine department at night continue keep on extension during 46 years.

Jianmin Pharmacy services people for 24 hours every day at Beijing Road in Guangzhou.

Nowadays Jianmin medicine department at night hires professional staffs as attendants instead of arranging shop assistants on duty in turn. Two assistants in turn now are replaced by five professional staffs, so the income of selling medicine at night cannot go over the increased cost, which should be paid to the night position in RMB 5000 yuan every month.

When 24-hour pharmacies have to close their light at midnight due to cost and security problems, Jianmin Pharmacy gives the respond, "Since the successful pharmacy is evaluated by not only considerable economic benefit but also the social responsibility, as long as neighbors were still in need, the lamplight of Jianmin Pharmacy medicine department at night at Beijing Road would be on for neighbors forever even though we had to sell at a loss." Thus, the lamp of Jianmin medicine department at night still does not go out in the competitive medicine retailing industry, and Jianmin Pharmacy has adhered to the aim of serving the people.

Jianmin medicine department at night was likened to "the imperishable lamplight in the long night" in a special report in 2 May 1996 written by Weiyin, the previous editor-in-chief of Yangcheng Evening News, which caused great sensation in society and has spread until now.

In the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings, the short drama based on true stories, "the imperishable lamplight in the long night", made everyone fall in the recollection of past events in details occurred at the medicine department at night.

Jianmin Pharmacy does not stop the steps of operation and innovation 46 years later, which is not only the imperishable lamplight in the long night, but also the warm memory in people's minds.