Ye Zilong breaks new ground as eye doctor to the poor

A decade ago, Dr Ye Zilong was renowned for his ability to cure eye diseases. His patients included the wealthy, and distinguished government officials including former paramount leader Hua Guofeng, Mao Zedong's designated successor, who called Ye a "light bringer".

But when he was in his mid-thirties, he made a bold decision to drastically alter his career path. Rather than helping only the privileged, Ye wanted to make his skills accessible to the less fortunate. He left the prestigious Tongren Hospital in Beijing and started over.

Today, he heads three private hospitals - in Beijing, Hebei and Shanxi - and every year they offer thousands of free eye operations for the poor and the disabled.

But it hasn't been easy. Private hospitals must pay taxes that public hospitals are exempt from, and while they struggle to secure capital, their public rivals easily receive billions of yuan from the government.

I wanted to have my own business and turn my ideas into reality. I knew that running a private hospital would be hard, but that's why I wanted to try. If it were easy, why would I leave Tongren? Now I'm able to offer better services for clients, set up a good system to train eye doctors and also help the poor. Managing these things on a massive scale would be impossible at a public hospital such as Tongren.