Bangladeshi girl Alifa Chin. （PHOTO: XINHUA）

By Staff Reporters

On the eve of International Children's Day, a 12-year-old Bangladeshi girl received a reply letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping who encouraged her to study hard, pursue her dream and carry forward the traditional friendship between China and Bangladesh.

When the girl was born in 2010, her mother suffered a difficult delivery due to a severe heart problem.

The Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark, which had just sailed to Bangladesh to provide free medical services to locals at that time, immediately sent doctors to the local hospital to perform a cesarean section on her mother after learning of the emergency.

With the timely help from the military doctors, the mother and daughter were safe. To show his gratitude, Hossen, the father named his baby Chin, which means China in Bengali.

It is a very touching story of friendship between China and Bangladesh. The two countries have been close neighbors and good friends, whose friendly exchanges date back over a thousand years.

More than 600 years ago, Zheng He, a Chinese navigator of the Ming Dynasty, sailed twice to Bangladesh, sowing the seeds of friendship between the two peoples.

Over 600 years later, China's navy hospital ship continued writing a new chapter of the story between China and Bangladesh.

The Peace Ark hospital ship, which aims to provide free much-needed medical care to the people from around the world, is China's first standard ocean-going hospital ship and the world's first 10,000-ton-level professional hospital ship.

The ship has multiple operating rooms, nursing stations and exam rooms, and more than 100 medical staff working in dozens of clinical and auxiliary departments, bringing medical support to those in dire need. In addition, it undertakes the task of dispatching anti-pandemic materials and vaccines to people in need, and aiding countries battered by natural disasters.

When the Peace Ark arrived in Bangladesh for the second time in 2013, China's military doctors conducted a comprehensive check-up on Chin.

In 2017, Sheng Ruifang, the anesthesiologist who participated in the surgery for Chin's mother, met Chin during a visit to Bangladesh with a Chinese naval mission. Since then Chin has called Sheng her "Chinese mother".

"It was the Chinese mother who helped me come into this world back then. Today, uncles and aunties from China are still showing long-term concern for my growth," said Chin. "Many thanks to all of them."

Chin has expressed her aspirations of studying in China in the future. She wants to be a China-Bangladesh friendship messenger when she grows up, and wishes to study at a medical school in China in the future so that she can save lives just like her "Chinese mother."