Huadong Hospital () or East China Hospital, founded in 1921 as the Country Hospital, is a

teaching hospital A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical centre that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, China, affiliated with the Shanghai Medical College of

Fudan University Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is als ...

. Its main building, designed by

László Hudec László Ede Hudec or Ladislav Hudec ( hu, Hugyecz László Ede) (Besztercebánya, Austria-Hungary (now Banská Bystrica, Slovakia) January 8, 1893 – Berkeley, October 26, 1958), Chinese name Wu Dake (), was a Hungarian– Slovak architect acti ...

, is a Municipal Heritage Building of Shanghai.

Overview

Huadong Hospital is a teaching hospital of the Shanghai Medical College of

. As of 2017, it has 1,283 beds and 2,113 employees, including 258 professors and associate professors. Although open to the general public, it mainly serves high-ranking officials, social and scientific elites, and foreign diplomats and visitors, with a specialty in

geriatric Geriatrics, or geriatric medicine, is a medical specialty focused on providing care for the unique health needs of older adults. The term ''geriatrics'' originates from the Greek γέρων ''geron'' meaning "old man", and ιατρός ''iatros ...

care.

History

The hospital was established in 1921 as the Country Hospital, known in Chinese as Hong'en Hospital (宏恩医院). Its main H-shaped building on Great Western Road (now Yan'an Road), opened in 1926, was donated by an anonymous British businessman to the

Shanghai Municipal Council The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the merger in the year 1863 of the British and American enclaves in Shanghai, in which British subjects and American citizens would enjoy extraterritoriality and consular jurisdictio ...

, the governing body of the

Shanghai International Settlement The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the merger in the year 1863 of the British and American enclaves in Shanghai, in which British subjects and American citizens would enjoy extraterritoriality and consular jurisdictio ...

. Designed by the Hungarian-Slovak architect

and constructed by the firm Pan Rong Ji (潘荣记), it is now protected as a Municipal Heritage Building of Shanghai. During World War II, large numbers of European Jewish refugees fled to Shanghai. The Country Hospital, under Superintendent Dr. J. E. Bowen, was one of several Shanghai hospitals that provided treatment to the refugees free of charge, including X-ray examinations. After the founding of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1949, the People's Liberation Army took over the hospital in October 1950. In August 1951, Huadong Hospital, then with 60 beds, was established on the site of the Country Hospital, dedicated to treating high-ranking government and military officials, distinguished experts and professors, and foreign diplomats and visitors. Huadong Hospital merged with the nearby Shanghai Publicly Funded Healthcare Hospital () in February 1965 and took on the latter's name. The hospital was renamed Yan'an Hospital () the following year. The southern wing of the building was reverted to Huadong Hospital in December 1967. It was not until 1970, when Yan'an Hospital was moved to Kunming,

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

Province, that the entire building was reverted to Huadong, with its northern wing open to the general public. In 1987, it became a teaching hospital of the Shanghai Medical College, which is now the medical school of

. Several celebrities, including

Ba Jin Ba Jin (Chinese: 巴金; pinyin: ''Bā Jīn''; 1904–2005) was a Chinese writer. In addition to his impact on Chinese literature, he also wrote three original works in Esperanto, and as a political activist he wrote '' The Family''. Name He ...

, Su Buqing and

Wang Danfeng Wang Danfeng (; 23 August 1924 – 2 May 2018) was a Chinese actress who was active mainly between the 1940s and the 1960s. She was one of the most influential actresses in Chinese cinema, and was named as one of the four great actresses in Hong ...

, spent their final years in the hospital.

References

{{coord missing, Shanghai László Hudec buildings Teaching hospitals in Shanghai 1921 establishments in China Fudan University Hospitals established in 1921 Jing'an District