On April 9, 2018, the Second People's Hospital of Lanzhou City commemorated two foreign missionaries and a Chinese Christian doctor at a symposium to mark its 100th anniversary, according to its official WeChat account.
Its predecessor, Borden Memorial Hospital, was completed in 1918 after a four-year construction. The hospital's former president Zeng Gang said, "Recalling medical missionaries who founded Gansu's first western hospital in Lanzhou a century ago, they not only worked hard but also gave their lives, who were indifferent to their personal lives and deaths particularly when diseases like leprosy were deadly sicknesses. So they refracted a spirit of philanthropism and glory."
A special documentary was also made, including precious photos introducing the hospital's foreign doctors and nurses who worked with their Chinese colleagues to save lives. They were from countries like the UK, the US, Germany, Australia, and many unknown places touching stories.
Borden Hospital was sponsored by Mr. William Borden, a missionary of CIM, who desired to preach the Gospel in northwestern China but died of meningitis at the age of 25. Before his death, he left a large sum of money to CIM then and the mission established the hospital in Lanzhou as a way to realize his dream.
It had a clinic, an operating room, a laboratory and a pharmacy, offering 80 beds for men and 40 for women. In addition, it provided a special ward for Muslims. A leprosarium was opened in 1926. For its outstanding treatment, the provincial government permitted Dr. King to build a leprosy village in a valley which was 20 kilometers away from Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture.
Dr. George Edwin King or Jin Pinsan, a medical missionary, was in charge of the hospital construction and the first president. His parents Mr. George King and Mrs. Harriette Black were among the earliest missionaries of CIM. In December 1910, Dr. George King learned that the mission in China needed medical missionaries from CIM's magazine "China's Millions ". Therefore, he returned to China in January 1911 and was temporarily assigned to work in the CMI Hospital at Kaifeng, Henan, where he met his sworn friend Dr. Kao Gin-cheng. They were co-workers for many years in north-west medical mission work.
In 1927, the second year after the outbreak of Northern Expedition, Dr.King was commanded to lead the withdrawal of foreigners all over the province. On June 5, he died in rescuing rafts actually all stranded, under 40 years of age.To honor of Dr. King, later the hospital erected a tombstone that still stands in the hospital. He served Chinese patients for 16 years.
According to the official website of the hospital, it was handed over to the local government in 1951 and was renamed as its current name in 1978.Currently, it has developed into a comprehensive hospital with a high quality of medical treatment, education, and research, specializing in hepatological surgery, digestive endoscopy, orthopedics, and hepatopathy.
- Translated by Karen Luo
