95-year-old American David Bai made 20+ China trips, donating ¥6M+ in medical gear—CT, ultrasound, gastroscopes, ECG—to Huangyuan, Qinghai, his childhood home.
Tags:Source: OT-Team(G), 人民网
Born in New York, 95-year-old American David Bai has spent a lifetime staying connected to Huangyuan, Qinghai, making more than 20 trips to China and helping donate over ¥6 million in medical equipment to his hometown.
One photograph, taken in 1942, shows several children standing on a hillside. He points to the child on the far left and speaks in fluent Huangyuan dialect, a local variety of Chinese spoken in Qinghai Province.
"That's me. I was in my teens back then. I'll always be a kid from Huangyuan."
In 1932, when David Bai was just over a year old, he came to China with his father, Bai Limei. He spent his formative years in Huangyuan County, Qinghai, a place that would remain close to his heart for the rest of his life.
On the other side of the screen, old friends in Huangyuan call out to him:
"Brother David, we've got your hand-grabbed lamb ready for you!"
Half a world away, tears well up in David's eyes.
Born in New York, this American has been remembered by generations of people in Huangyuan. But why does a place he left so many years ago still mean so much to him?
Because time may change a person's appearance and way of life, but it cannot necessarily erase their attachment to the place they call home.
For David, that place has always been Huangyuan.
Over more than three decades, David has traveled between China and the United States more than 20 times. Together with his family and friends, he has helped raise funds to donate medical equipment to Huangyuan County, including CT scanners, ultrasound machines, gastroscopes and ECG monitors.
The total value of these donations exceeds 6 million yuan.
Today, Huangyuan County People's Hospital handles more than 300,000 outpatient visits annually. Behind the hospital's development is a contribution from David that carries the weight of decades of dedication.
Yet David sees things differently.
"What I've done for my hometown cannot be called a contribution. It's our duty. We have to do it. It's simply the right thing to do."
David is not a wealthy man. Every yuan he has helped raise came through appeals to friends and charitable foundations. Yet he has always tried to secure the best possible equipment for Huangyuan.
Now advanced in age, David is no longer able to make the journey back to Huangyuan.
But there is one thing he has never let go of: his hometown dialect.
Living in the United States, he has no one around him to speak Huangyuan dialect with. So every day, he stands in front of a mirror and repeats a few phrases to himself.
"Otherwise, if too much time passes, I'll forget it."
A person may live in many places throughout their lifetime, but there is only one place they can truly call home.
For David Bai, that home lies on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, at the source of the Huangshui River.
Though an ocean now separates him from Huangyuan, the years have never taken it away from him.
At 95, he still speaks like a local boy, remembers the friends who are waiting for him, and holds on to the place where his story began.
He may have grown old in America, but in his heart, he will always be a boy from Huangyuan.
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