Weifang physician left a legacy of care, compassion

In a final act of bravery, Chinese doctor Zhang Junqiao died in Tanzania last year while saving a woman from drowning — a sacrifice that underscored a lifetime dedicated to serving others, both at home and abroad.

Zhang, 38, drowned on June 15 while rescuing a Tanzanian woman who had fallen into the sea near Dar es Salaam in the East African nation. He managed to lift her to safety, but succumbed before he could return to shore.

Zhang was deputy chief physician in the anesthesiology department at the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Second Medical University in Weifang, Shandong province. In 2024, he led the 27th Chinese medical aid team to Tanzania to provide anesthesia services and medical training at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam.

To his colleagues, Zhang's final sacrifice was unsurprising.

"He always carried other people's difficulties in his heart and helped in the most sincere ways," said Yao Fuwang, deputy chief anesthesiologist at the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Second Medical University and a lifelong friend of Zhang.

In January, discussing his colleague's selflessness, Yao recalled two pivotal moments.

In 2009, Zhang gave him 5,000 yuan ($721) to help with a wedding apartment when Zhang earned a monthly salary of about 3,200 yuan. Later, Zhang's mother made clothes for Yao's newborn child.

In Weifang, Zhang was better known as the "street stall doctor". Throughout sweltering summer days, he would kneel on the blistering pavement to demonstrate chest compression exercises for passersby.

Yin Jinjiao, a head nurse at the Shandong hospital, said: "When I first heard he was going to set up a stall in a square to teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation, I was a bit doubtful. Medical workers already have demanding jobs. How sustainable would doing volunteer training after work be? Would anyone even be interested? But just a few days later, he made it."

In 2020, Zhang cofounded Weifang's Heartbeat Action volunteer service team. Yin also took part. The group used medical mannequins for training, which wore out quickly.

"After less than three months, we needed new ones. Someone suggested charging a small fee, maybe 10 yuan, to cover costs," Yin said, adding it was the only time Zhang ever got angry with the team.

"He told us to abandon the idea entirely. He said helping and influencing others was far more valuable than anything in a bank account."

The ground was burning hot, Yin recalled, but Zhang insisted on kneeling to show the proper technique. The bruises on his knees would fade and then return. New ones layered over old. He never once complained of the pain.

That ethos traveled with him to Tanzania in early 2024.

There, Zhang and his team jointly covered the medical expenses to provide surgical treatment for an impoverished 8-year-old suffering from an abdominal wall hernia.

Zhang's final social media post, dated June 8, a week before he drowned, captured his sense of purpose: "Service to the people knows no boundaries. As a Chinese doctor working abroad, I am proud of my country and my profession, letting Tanzanian colleagues feel the strength of China and Chinese doctors."

Zhang's "bridge of life", as friends now call his legacy, did not end with him. The volunteer team in Weifang has been renamed the Junqiao Heartbeat Action service team.

"The cardiopulmonary resuscitation awareness rate in Weifang's urban areas has risen by one percentage point over the years. We will carry on this mission of guarding life," said team member and medical university student Zeng Landi.