Military 'Nightingales' on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Kelsang has gallstones. She gladly takes the medicine from the doctor's hands, saying "military doctors are good" in her poor mandarin.

Every time doctors from No. 22 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) visit Changjiangyuan Village in Golmud--the second biggest city in northwest China's Qinghai Province--Kelsang, 49, is informed by phone.

Ten years ago, villagers who lived above 4,000 meters on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were relocated to Golmud, at an altitude of only 2,800 meters, to protect the sources of three major Chinese rivers: the Yangtze, Yellow, and Lancang. Roads in Changjiangyuan are clean and wide lined with Tibetan-style houses.

Tibetan Chamqu Drolma, 72, has difficulty in walking. Doctor Li Gaoyuan from the PLA No. 22 Hospital visits her at home. After some basic checks, Li suggests she goes to the hospital for a series of free examinations.

According to Jin Xia, head of nursing at the hospital, hypertension, skin disease and arthropathy are the most common diseases among Tibetan residents.

"In the past, Tibetan residents would suffer in silence until they had no choice but to see a doctor," said Jin. "Now, they line up waiting for us every time we come."

PLA No.22 Hospital in Golmud provides free medical care service for officers and soldiers on duty along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. The doctors also give free medical care to nomadic people living on the prairie.

Since Jin started work at the hospital in 1994, both equipment and the quality of medical staff have improved. Breakthroughs in the treatment of high altitude cerebral edema have brought down its death rate.

"Nursing efforts is my life-long career," said Jin.