HOHHOT, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Instead of going back to his hometown in Mongolia, Otgen plans to work as an intern at a company in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for the summer.
Otgen, from the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, is a student at Inner Mongolia University. She has been studying in China for five years.
"In recent years, many of my friends have come to China to study," she said. "Some of them attend middle school here, before continuing education in Chinese colleges."
Otgen said that the Chinese government offers scholarships for foreign students and that teachers and classmates are very nice.
Official figures show that in recent years, more than 10,000 students from Mongolia came to China to study, and the Chinese government grants more than 200 government scholarships to students from Mongolia each year. Meanwhile, the Inner Mongolia regional government offers a variety of scholarships worth more than 10 million yuan (1.45 million U.S. dollars) annually to students from Mongolia studying in the region.
"Since China and Mongolia established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014, exchanges in areas such as education and medicine have been rigorous between the two countries," said Fan Lijun, with Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences.
For instance, the Inner Mongolia International Mongolian Medicine Hospital, which focuses on traditional Mongolian medical treatment, has been the first choice for many patients from Mongolia.
Borhuu, 41, is from Mongolia's Khentii Province. His daughter has been receiving treatment at the orthopedics department of the hospital.
"Traditional Mongolian medical treatment is known for healing bone fractures without operations," Borhuu said. "The hospital's orthopedics department is famous in Mongolia."
Since its establishment in 2012, the hospital has received about 30,000 patients from Mongolia, with more than 3,700 staying in the hospital for treatment. It also recruits more than 40 student interns from Mongolia each year, to help train medical talents.
Byanqinggel is one of them. He will conclude his internship at the hospital in September this year and return to Mongolia. A year of study there allowed him to get a basic understanding of Mongolian medical treatment.
"In Mongolia, we often see TV shows where skilled doctors diagnose patients by feeling their pulse, and my friends often talk about the amazing medical methods," he said. "I became fascinated by Mongolian medical treatment and was fortunate to have the opportunity to study at the hospital."
Byanqinggel said that the pulse-feeling skill, coupled with Mongolian medication, is quite effective and cheap in treatment, and demand in Mongolia is high.
Medical institutions in China and Mongolia have been cooperating to cater to the high demand. In 2016, the Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia University for the Nationalities worked with a college in Mongolia and established a branch in Ulan Bator. The branch receives more than 1,000 patients from Mongolia every year.
Burenbat, head of the Affiliated Hospital, said the hospital has various departments featuring Mongolian medical treatment, and that the experts of the hospital are often sent to the branch to treat local patients.
The Chinese Red Cross Foundation has also launched a cooperation project with the Red Cross Society of China Inner Mongolia Branch. From 2017 to 2018, the medical team under the project helped identify children with congenital heart disease in Mongolia and sent the children to China for treatment for free after getting the consent of their custodians. Within two years, 100 children from Mongolia received free operations.
Eight-year-old Sengge received a free medical operation at the Inner Mongolia People's Hospital. Now, Sengge has returned to his home country and is living healthily.
"I am grateful for the Chinese doctors for giving a second life to my son," said Sengge's mother Narantuyaa. "It truly changed the course of life for our family."