Correct Outlook on Performance, Practiced in the Barracks | A "Successor to Bethune" Emerges from the Taihang Mountains
A "Successor to Bethune" Emerges from the Taihang Mountains
■ Chen Jiangwen, Zhang Binnan, PLA Daily Special Correspondent Cui Hanning
Illustration: Fang Han
On a midsummer morning, deep in the Taihang Mountains, a banner bearing the words "Bethune Medical Team" snapped in the morning breeze in Beizhuang Village, Xibaipo Township, Pingshan County, Hebei Province.
Beizhuang Village is the birthplace of the classic revolutionary song "Unity Is Strength," and it was also the first stop on this round of circuit medical visits and free consultations by the Bethune Medical Team of Joint Logistic Support Force Hospital 980.
Along the village paths, military physicians in camouflage uniforms carried medicine boxes on their backs, bringing healthcare directly to villagers' homes. "All these years, we owe so much to you all…" Opening her door and seeing the familiar figures, village resident Auntie Yu's face was filled with gratitude.
Auntie Yu told reporters that transportation in the village is inconvenient, and for residents to make a trip to the county people's hospital, they first have to get to the township, then transfer to a bus and travel into the city by a roundabout route. A single medical visit often means leaving early and returning late.
Time speaks without words; actions speak loudly. These winding village paths once bore witness to Bethune's heroic feat of rescuing the wounded day and night without rest, and they also hold the memory of the deep affection the hospital's Bethune Medical Team has for the people of the old revolutionary base areas. Since 2012, the medical team has regularly entered the revolutionary old base areas to deliver medicine and medical care to the people, without interruption.
That year, the Bethune Medical Team came to Sunjiazhuang Village in Laiyuan County, Hebei Province, for a circuit visit. Upon learning that this had once been a place where Bethune fought, one team member proposed: "As 'successors to Bethune,' should we not make it a regular practice to go deep into the revolutionary old base areas for circuit visits?" The suggestion stirred wide discussion. The team members talked it over and felt that following in Bethune's combat footsteps to bring medicine, drugs, and health to the people of the old base areas was a vivid practice of carrying forward the Bethune spirit. But some harbored reservations: would regularly drawing away medical backbone personnel for circuit visits in the old base areas create a shortage of staff for routine clinical work?
"Military hospitals serve the military and the people. Serving the people of the old base areas is an inescapable responsibility of the 'successors to Bethune.'" Upon learning of the situation, the hospital Party committee studied the matter and decided to conduct the "Walking Bethune's Road Again" circuit visit activity on a regular basis, periodically selecting backbone medical personnel to join the medical team for circuit visits and medical outreach in the revolutionary old base areas. Hospital leaders also took the lead in planning circuit visit routes, procuring medicines and equipment, and assembling expert teams, setting out on the circuit visit road together with team members.
In 2012, in Tuling Village, Pingshan County, military physician Zhou Yongqing of the hospital's otolaryngology department entered the home of villager Zhang Erqiao, who had suddenly lost her hearing. After a careful examination, he found that Zhang Erqiao needed a cochlear implant, but the high cost put it out of reach for this impoverished family. After the circuit visit concluded, Zhou Yongqing made contact through multiple channels and finally found a manufacturer willing to provide the cochlear implant free of charge; the hospital also waived all surgical fees for Zhang Erqiao. On the day the surgery succeeded, Zhang Erqiao gripped Zhou Yongqing's hand tightly as tears streamed down her face.
In the summer of 2014, in Zuoquan County, Shanxi Province, the hospital's ophthalmology specialist Wang Chaoying stood at the operating table for hours at a stretch, helping more than ten cataract patients regain their sight. "Director Wang, I can see!" one patient said excitedly, gripping his hand and offering repeated thanks. Watching the smiles bloom on the patients' faces, Wang Chaoying said with deep feeling: "Coming to the places where Bethune fought, listening to the villagers tell stories about Bethune, has given us a far deeper understanding of the Bethune spirit. Every circuit visit is a baptism of the soul."
The moving stories are inexhaustible; the bonds of concern cannot be severed. Hospital leaders told reporters that on every circuit visit, whenever the medical team encounters patients with difficult or serious conditions, the military physicians leave their contact information to facilitate follow-up visits, and some military physicians have maintained contact with patients for as long as ten years.
Wang Baoyu, a resident of Chengnanzhuang Township in Fuping County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, was a patient who received long-term follow-up care from Feng Zhijun, a military physician in the hospital's orthopedics department. In 2016, Feng Zhijun discovered during a circuit visit that Wang Baoyu, then past fifty, was suffering from femoral head necrosis but could not afford medical treatment due to poverty. After deliberation, the hospital Party committee decided to perform hip replacement surgery on him free of charge. Over the nine years that followed, Feng Zhijun continued to monitor Wang Baoyu's condition.
Last year, Feng Zhijun again accompanied the team to Chengnanzhuang Township, where he learned that Wang Baoyu had unfortunately passed away from illness. When she saw Feng Zhijun, Wang Baoyu's sister took his hand and held it for a long time: "Thank you for always keeping him in your thoughts…"
On this 2025 circuit visit, a young face appeared at the side of Bu Jianli, director of the hospital's orthopedics department — his name is Zhen Yi, and he was once a patient Bu Jianli had treated.
Zhen Yi was born with congenital spina bifida and could only move about in a wheelchair. Bu Jianli performed his first surgery, and after more than ten procedures, finally helped him stand on his own feet again. From that time on, Zhen Yi carried in his heart the seed of a desire to "practice medicine and serve the country." Last year, Zhen Yi fulfilled his wish by gaining admission to Hebei University of Chinese Medicine to pursue a master's degree in internal medicine of traditional Chinese medicine.
Upon learning that the medical team was about to walk Bethune's road again, Zhen Yi proactively applied to join the circuit visit as Bu Jianli's assistant. "Director Bu gave me a second life. I also want to do something for the villagers through concrete action, and pass this love forward." Speaking of his original motivation for joining the circuit visit, Zhen Yi's tone was resolute.
Fifteen years have passed, and the hospital's leadership has changed again and again, yet the "Walking Bethune's Road Again" circuit visit activity has never been interrupted. The medical team's members have left their footprints across multiple revolutionary old base areas in Hebei and Shanxi provinces, and that bright red banner has continued to fly high at the foot of the Taihang Mountains.
"What Communist Party members do and build is for the benefit of the people." Hospital leaders told reporters that the old base area circuit visits are not "window dressing" (花架子), but a genuinely people-benefiting endeavor. In recent years, they have joined hands with multiple hospitals in cooperative efforts, invited "China's Good Doctors" to participate together, and continuously expanded the activity's influence and reach; they have organized a series of activities including "Pilgrimage to Bethune's Red Landmarks" (白求恩红色地标巡礼) and "Tracing Bethune's Wartime Footsteps" (寻访白求恩抗战足迹), following in Bethune's combat footsteps to bring health and warmth to more people in the old base areas, so that the Bethune spirit may be passed down from generation to generation.
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The People's Army Serves the People
■ Chen Xiaojing
A military hospital — a special designation; a people's military physician — a sacred profession. Don the uniform, and one belongs to the combat order of the people's army; wear the white coat, and one bears the sacred mission of healing the wounded and saving the dying. This dual mission determines that military hospitals and people's military physicians must always uphold the principle of "serving the military and the soldiers, serving the people" (姓军为兵、服务人民).
Everything for the people, everything in service of the people — this is the lifeblood and genetic code of military hospitals and people's military physicians. Military hospitals bear the surname "military" (军) and even more so the surname "people" (民); people's military physicians serve "the military" and also "the people." Hospital 980's Bethune Medical Team has walked Bethune's road again for fifteen consecutive years, regularly entering the revolutionary old base areas to deliver medicine and medical care to the people — this is without question a vivid microcosm of military hospitals and people's military physicians acting for the people and serving the people.
From going deep into the Taihang mountains to bring medicine and medical care to the people of the old base areas, to conducting circuit visits and free consultations in remote and hardship areas; from sharing military-civilian resources to prevent and treat difficult diseases, to helping preferential-care hospitals (优抚医院) raise their level of diagnosis and treatment… Successive cohorts of military medical personnel have used superb medical skills to safeguard the people's health, and used boundless love to warm the people's hearts, building a bridge of spiritual communion and blood-bond fusion between the people's army and the people. Forging ahead on the new journey, achieving merit in the new era, military hospitals and people's military physicians will continue to faithfully practice the pledge that "people's military physicians serve the people," and through concrete action write an outstanding answer sheet worthy of the era and worthy of the people.