To publicize this history, the Bethune Memorial House was set up in Wuhan in July 2010. It functions as an education base for all new local medics before being sent to their medical facilities.

A training class is held for new medical workers. Participants learn the stories of Bethune and take a vow in front of his statue. So far, more than 2,100 local medical staff members have attended classes and completed the oath-taking ceremony, as arranged by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission.

The aim is to encourage them to learn from Bethune's professionalism and his spirit of self-sacrifice, according to the organizers of the activities. However, the classes have been suspended since last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The memorial house is located in the Fifth Hospital of Wuhan, which was one of the first designated hospitals for COVID-19 patients. When the outbreak hit the city, the hospital received an average 1,030 patients every day, and the daily peak reached 1,970 by early 2020.

Xu Ying, 46, director of the blood and endocrinology department at the hospital, says she began to learn about Bethune's Wuhan story after the founding of the memorial house, and was quite moved.

During the early stage of the outbreak, everyone was unprepared for virus, and all medics regarded working on the front line as their responsibility.

"We shared the same humanitarian spirit as that of Bethune. It needs solidarity and cooperation to save people's lives," she says.

Contact the writers through chenmeiling@chinadaily.com.cn