As SYSU celebrates the 160th anniversary of its medical education, an exhibition showcasing its medical aid achievements opened on November 8 at the Guangzhou South Campus Gymnasium. Comprising three chapters, the exhibition invites visitors to explore SYSU's inspiring journey of bringing health and healing across mountains and oceans.
The Nation's Call
How is a university's medical history closely intertwined with national development?
The exhibition's first chapter traces SYSU's path of sharing weal and woe with the nation. Driven by national development and public health needs, generations of SYSU medical professionals have integrated their personal aspirations into the broader national strategy, answering the call of the times through concrete actions.
Moving along a historical timeline, the exhibition unfolds a long scroll of medical workers marching alongside the nation: from initiating modern Western medical education in China to relocating across thousands of miles amidst the fires of war; from the battlefield pledge during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea—“Where medical supplies are lacking, we make up for it with our skills”—to the grand merger of three medical sources that laid the foundation for South China’s medical development; and from the 20th-century campaigns to eradicate schistosomiasis and bring healthcare to rural areas to the new era’s pioneering contributions to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Healthy China Initiative.
Renowned parasitologist Chen Xintao made outstanding contributions toward the nationwide effort to eradicate schistosomiasis, and was received by Chairman Mao.
In 2024, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao University Ophthalmology Alliance was officially approved. Guests including Lin Haotian, Chen Bin, Song Yonghua, and Ji Jiashu took the stage together to unveil the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao University Ophthalmology Alliance.
Precious historical materials and photographs record the steadfast commitment of SYSU’s medical workers in merging individual aspirations with national development. Through this chapter, visitors can revisit the origins of “saving the nation through medicine”, and appreciate how the university embeds national needs into its destiny and shoulders responsibilities of promoting public health.
SYSU's Footprints
What footprints have SYSU medical workers left across mountains and seas? What dedication and breakthroughs lie behind their achievements in medical aid?
The exhibition's second chapter highlights the outreach achievements of SYSU medical teams in Xinjiang and Xizang, and numerous counties dotted around the country. They play an active and substantive role in emergency rescue operations, smart healthcare deployment, and international medical cooperation.
Map of Seven High-Ranking Hospitals at the Provincial Level
From the country's borders to the snowy plateau, from grassroots villages to foreign lands, as far as the path of medical assistance extends, so do the footsteps of SYSU’s medical professionals. As a “national flagship” in healthcare, SYSU's medical programs continuously output high-quality medical resources, exercising its capabilities in the most remote areas. Following the medical footprints across mountains and seas, the exhibition connects the solid strides of SYSU medical professionals in serving the country, the people, and the world.
Ten affiliated hospitals of Sun Yat-sen University hold a joint free clinic in Fengqing County.
To meet diverse healthcare needs, SYSU’s medical professionals pack their bags and set forth time and time again, to places where mountains are high and roads are distant with limited medical resources, to environments where conditions are harsh and medical care improvement are urgently needed, and to critical moments when sudden emergencies strike and saving lives brooks no delay.
In the Pamir Mountains, aid transformed from “visiting” to “establishing”. Through mentor-apprentice pairings, hospital-to-department sponsorships, and standardized workflows, they brought advanced technology, management, and academic systems to southern Xinjiang. On the snowy plateau, medical teams took turns stationed at an altitude of 5,000 meters, moving operating rooms and clinics to the cloud-high snowy villages to bring hope to the doorsteps of local residents. In grassroots counties, expert assignments, discipline co-building, and specialized medical care provision channeled high-quality resources to the masses. Rooted in the Greater Bay Area and reaching out to the world, foreign medical aid teams journeyed across oceans to spread the seeds of light and health. Translating laboratory research into clinical treatments through “Medicine Plus X” interdisciplinary synergy, SYSU turns every valuable medical innovation from papers into practice, transforming technologies into accessible therapies.
Dr. Wu Dexi from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, performed the first temporary pacemaker implantation in Dominica
Xing Wei, an Associate Chief Physician at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, provides clinical instruction to local physicians.
July 3, 2024—Xiao Fei, leader of the Guangdong aid team to Xinjiang and Vice President of the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, provided health guidance to local patients.
Solid results and landmark projects showcase the excellence of the medical “national team” and the profound responsibility behind the mission of “building hospitals where they are needed most.”
Professor He Xiaoshun of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University performing an “Ischemia-Free” Organ Transplant surgery
In November 2025, the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center of Sun Yat-sen University performed its first remote surgery using a 5G-enabled robotic surgical system (spanning 4,200 kilometers between Guangzhou and Urumqi)
Warm Echoes
The exhibition’s third chapter recounts the heartwarming stories during medical aid services, conveying benevolence through intimate details and touching moments.
If data captures the breadth and depth of medical assistance, true stories reveal its most moving warmth.
The warmth of trust is seen in the heavy expectations citizens place on doctors by entrusting them with their lives. The warmth of legacy is felt as experts pass on their knowledge without reservation, creating a lasting medical legacy. The warmth of breakthrough lies in overcoming difficulties to implement new technologies and solutions in remote areas, and the warmth of response is reflected in answering the call of duty and the nation’s summons instantly.
Professor Liu Yinglin from Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, named the first baby delivered via Caesarean section in Zhongba County “Liu Bo'ai.”
Bian Huawei from the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and the children in the mountainous regions
Professor Liang Xiaoyan from the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University attends to a patient
A handwritten letter, a yellowed group photo, a personal keepsake, a warm handshake... Behind these warm mementos are moments of life entrusted and promises kept across mountains and seas.
In Thailand, Professor Liao Guiqing from the Guanghua School of Stomatology at Sun Yat-sen University received an urgent call from a former student. He set off immediately, and the two worked side-by-side for twelve hours under the surgical lights. Following the procedure, the patient expressed their gratitude in a handwritten note and a “thumbs-up” gesture.
A letter of appreciation for aid to Xizang, received by Associate Chief Physician Zhou Xuefu of the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University
Dr. Zhou Changqing from the Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University shares a warm, eye-to-eye moment with a patient at a local clinic.
Trust, legacy, breakthrough, response... Emotions untouched by time and the benevolent hearts of healers hidden in daily routines await visitors at the exhibition. Through vivid stories, viewers can witness how SYSU medical professionals guard life with benevolent hearts and answer the people's expectations with superb skills.
Where is SYSU medical science? In the past, it was where the people needed it most. Today, it is where the people need it most. In the future, it will still be where the people need it most. Safeguarding the people’s life and health is the unchanging answer of SYSU’s medical programs over the past 160 years. More vivid details, touching images, and warm stories await you on-site.
Welcome to the exhibition on medical aid achievements to experience these passionate and vibrant medical stories up close,
