"It is a valuable career to bring healthcare services to more people in villages," Pan says.

Until 2018, she was the sole physician for eight nearby villages, inhabited by more than 20,000 people. Every day, the doctor receives about 30 patients on average. She has to be a general practitioner and, consequently, is required to always be on call.

Over the past two decades, she has carried her medical kit and rushed to patients' houses whenever needed, regardless of the arduous route or rough weather.

Her clinic was moved to Lugoutang village and two more doctors, including her husband, joined.

In early 2020, faced with the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, Pan and her team were in charge of healthcare services for 4,425 people in Lugoutang village. Every day, they visited the residents' homes, checking temperatures, distributing medicine to tackle colds and telling villagers how to prevent COVID infection.

Healthcare for more

Born in Getang village, about 1,430 meters above sea level, located halfway up a mountain in Guizhou's Anlong county, Pan still has fresh memories about how difficult it was for villagers to see a doctor. Her mother suffered for years with chronic pulmonary heart disease and every week since Pan's junior high school, she would take her along the mountain road to the nearest health center, over 10 km away.

She attended a local nursing vocational college in 1995. As one of the three outstanding graduates among the total 300 students in 1998, it was recommended that Pan continue her study at the Zunyi Medical University.

However, things didn't go as expected. When she was ready to register at the university, she got a call from her family, saying that her mother was dying. She gave up the opportunity for further study and returned home to care for her mother in her last days.

After her mother's funeral, she continued her study at the department of obstetrics and gynecology in the Qianxinan People's Hospital in Xingyi, Guizhou.