A family tragedy led Zhang Jing, 30, into medicine. Her grandfather in Shandong died of a heart attack and could have been saved if someone in the family had recognised the symptoms.
Having spent eight hard years studying medicine - attending classes 51/2 days a week, plus internships and residency - Zhang is about to become a junior doctor at a top Beijing hospital.
'I am not even sure how much I will be paid, most likely just enough to give my hair a perm in a hair salon, but I think the years are rewarding,' Zhang said. 'My mother says there are many rich people but few useful people. I think being a doctor is meaningful and useful.'
However, veteran doctors worry that they are seeing fewer keen students like Zhang. The years of study, the long working hours and low pay afterwards are deterring talented young people from studying medicine, with the situation made worse by widespread hostility from patients and the stress and risks of the job.
Professor Feng Xiping, from the department of preventive and paediatric dentistry at Shanghai No9 People's Hospital and Shanghai's Jiaotong University Medical School, said he had noticed a worrying trend in an early enrolment programme he runs for the school. It used to attract the brightest students, offering them places in their chosen major before the annual university entrance examination, but fewer outstanding students were choosing medicine.
Mainland medical schools train dentists and doctors.