China is seeing big growth in its number of foreign students and enrolled at least 3,500 in its medicine programs across the country for the 2014-15 academic year, and Jilin University, in the city of Changchun, in Jilin province is one of the centers of this, especially for students from Asia and Africa who are interested in medicine.

Jilin University's medical sciences department had around 500 of these students and arranged personnel to teach in English.

One 30 year-old Nepali doctoral student, Xiao Bin (Chinese name) at the university has been in China for 10 years and is now in the cardiology department of Jilin University-affiliated Hospital No 1 and says, "Chinese medical science is at a much higher level than Nepal’s, for example in equipment for diagnosing coronary heart diseases, with Jilin University alone having several of these instruments while the whole of Nepal has fewer than that."

Narciri, from Burundi, Africa, is studying obstetrics and gynecology at Jilin University and has plans to go back home to help develop medicine there, noting that, "many women die in childbirth or from diseases in my country."

Some students come to China not just for clinical studies but to raise their research level, which is the case with a 39 year-old Nepali woman, Renba, who is studying microorganisms at Jilin University for a PhD and is accompanied by her daughter, Nilen, who is working on a master’s degree in gastroenterology and says, "China has one of the highest levels of medical teaching in the world today and we've learnt a lot here."

Other attractions for these students are architecture, martial arts and cuisine, part of a contemporary "China fever", some foreign students say.

Nepali student Xiao Bin gives directions at Jilin University-affiliated Hospital No 1, on Nov 26. [Photo/Xinhua]