The Chinese hospital ship (Peace Ark) and the South African Military Health Service treated 3,243 patients with different ailments in South Africa for free as part of its joint military exercise in the past seven days, said a senior official of the South African Military Health Service.

Philip Makopo, a senior staff officer at the South African Military Health Service, made the remarks in an interview with China Daily. The two militaries were joined by the Western Cape department of health personnel in their humanitarian mission. The Chinese medical vessel carrying over 100 medical personnel arrived in South Africa on August 22. The ship has a rescue helicopter on board, laboratory services, specialized health services, surgical procedures and in-patient treatment facilities. Makopo said a total of 14 cataract surgeries were conducted.

"The biggest beneficiaries were the patients since our targets were the poor of the poorest from the informal settlements from places such as Mitchell's Plein and other areas. This joint national and interdepartmental humanitarian exercise helped us to benchmark ourselves. There were some exchanges of expertise and we learned a lot from the Chinese, especially on how they use technology they have and their use of the Chinese medicine. It was a good learning experience," Makopo said.

The Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, Wu Peng, said the visit to South Africa by the Peace Ark shows China's commitment to building a community with a shared future.

Makopo pointed out that humanitarian exercise helped to improve medical skills transfers between the two militaries, experiential knowledge in joint medical consultation, medical technologies, skills and other related activities in the medical field.

The medical vessel left South Africa on August 29 and headed to Angola. The Peace Ark has visited 45 countries and regions since its commissioning in 2008 to treat about 290,000 patients and share knowledge and expertise. The medical hospital will visit the Republic of Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Benin, Mauritania, France, Greece, Djibouti and Sri Lanka. The Chinese ship has a displacement of 14,000 metric tons with 16 departments, eight operating rooms and over 300 beds.