Shen Ali is a 38-year-old anesthesiologist from Xiaogan in Central China's Hubei province. Three generations in his family have been to Algeria on medical aid teams in the past four decades. His grandfather went there in 1979, followed by Shen's uncle, who's been there five times since 1987. Shen himself went there between 2015 and 2017 and performed nearly 1,000 surgeries.

After returning for more than one year, Shen has signed up for another medical aid team that will depart for Algeria.

Yang Zekun in Beijing contributed to this story