Hubei also sent 10 medical experts to Lesotho and Angola in September 2020 for three weeks to assist with responses to the pandemic.

China began sending medical teams to Africa in 1963, when it selected its finest physicians from cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan, and sent them to Algeria at the request of the Algerian government.

Since then, 28,000 medical team members have been dispatched to 73 countries and regions around the world, diagnosing and treating 290 million people, according to the National Health Commission.

Sheng said he had long been inspired to work in Africa by those around him, including a fellow student at medical school, who had provided medical assistance in Botswana for six years after graduation. He said that he'd been intrigued and he had wanted to go to Africa to experience "a different kind of life".

After all these months in Lesotho, the surgeon is deeply touched by the level of respect and trust he receives from patients, which leaves him free to focus on finding nothing but the best treatment for them.

The team is expected to return to China in March 2023, when their one-year term in Lesotho ends. Sheng said that he plans to allow his African colleagues to take charge of more surgical procedures for the rest of his stay, saying that it is always important that Chinese medical teams dispatched overseas help local physicians improve their skills and capacity.

"I truly hope that they will be able to master the performance of routine operations in the days to come," he said, adding that he will do his best to share his advice and experience with his colleagues.