A 68-year-old village doctor, Guo Guangjun, has been safeguarding the health of his fellow villagers the past 54 years by using traditional Chinese medicine therapies.

Guo Guangjun (right) receives a patient. File photo

When Guo was 12 years old, an outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis hit his village, claiming the lives of four people in one day, including his sister who was less than two years old. In grief, he made up his mind to become a doctor.

Songshan Mountain in the city of Dengfeng, central China’s Henan province, is home to more than 300 herbal plants. However, due to a lack of medical knowledge, Guo’s villagers didn’t know how to use the plants to cure diseases.

Through self-teaching, Guo mastered the characteristics and functions of almost all herbal plants on Songshan Mountain, while receiving guidance from a doctor in his town.

In 1970, the doctor guiding Guo recommended he pursue further study at a hospital in Luoyang city. During those six years of education, he worked really hard, taking notes by hand in more than 100 notebooks.

A picture of Guo Guangjun taken in 1974 File photo

After graduation, Guo gave up the opportunity of being a doctor at a big hospital in the city and chose to go back to his village. “My fellow villagers are very kind to me. They gave me money and food coupons every time I went back home from the hospital. I have to repay the kindness,” Guo said.

In June 1976, Guo became a village doctor. In 1981, the country contracted land to individual farmers, and after that most of the doctors at clinics in nearby villages resigned, except Guo.

With all of his savings, as well as money borrowed from other people and the bank, Guo built a 25-room clinic in his village, which has various departments.

He also developed prescriptions from herbal plants on Songshan Mountain. In February 2020, Guo donated 150 kilograms of Chinese herbal medicine to the Red Cross Society of Dengfeng city to help fight the outbreak of COVID-19.

In 2010, the clinic was expanded under the support of the local government. So far, it has treated and cured more than 1,000 patients from 17 towns nearby.

In 2014, Guo was selected as one of “the most beautiful rural doctors” in China and was awarded with 200,000 yuan. Later, a Beijing hospital provided him with 500,000 yuan to commend him for serving the countryside. With the 700,000 yuan (about $100,000), Guo built the first rural rehabilitation center in Henan province, which is open to villagers and patients for free.