Foreign patients seeking medical care in China tend to visit private hospitals or international medicine departments of public hospitals.

　　Wang Yiqun, deputy director of Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital's international medicine department, emphasized that the core mission of public hospitals is to meet basic healthcare needs of domestic patients.

　　To serve foreign patients based in Beijing and support the city's development as an international exchange hub, the hospital has set up the international medical division, Wang said, noting that it has also introduced multilingual services and streamlined commercial insurance settlements for the benefit of such patients.

　　"In line with national guidelines, international medical services are capped at around 10 percent of our total capacity," she added.

　　Lin, the head of medical affairs management, said the increasing number of international patients can be attributed to the advances China has made in terms of medical technology and to the growing recognition of local expertise.

　　"The head of our pediatric surgery department has treated several Mongolian children with Currarino syndrome, a rare disorder that affects the development of the spine, anus and genitalia, while a Peruvian patient with xanthoma disseminatum (a rare skin disease) traveled to China last year for our dermatology treatment after reading a doctor's research published online," Lin said.

　　Yet another case involved a patient from New Zealand with peritoneal metastasis from gastric cancer, who sought treatment at the hospital's peritoneal oncology department based on its international reputation, Lin added.

　　Di Yue, an ophthalmologist at Shanghai Children's Hospital, said he has noticed a significant rise in overseas patients in recent years, many of whom are overseas Chinese from countries such as Canada, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.