Tu was born on December 30, 1930.  She was born and raised in Ningbo, Zhejiang. Zhejiang is a province of China. It is located in eastern China. In 1951, she moved to Beijing. She went to the Peking University in Beijing. At the university, she studied pharmacology. In 1955, she finished college and started working at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing. It is now called the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.