HANGZHOU, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Peace Ark, a Chinese naval hospital ship, returned on Friday to a military port in the eastern province of Zhejiang, concluding an 88-day overseas humanitarian mission.

During the trip, known as "Mission Harmony-2010", the ship toured the Gulf of Aden to offer medical services to the Chinese naval escort flotilla, which shelters Chinese merchant ships in the pirate-infested gulf.

The ship also stopped in five countries, including Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, and Bangladesh, to provide medical treatment to the needy residents there.

This is the first time that China has dispatched a hospital ship to provide humanitarian medical services overseas.

The medical staff in the mission offered health checks to 2,127 people, received 12,806 outpatients, visited 1,858 patients and carried out 97 successful operations.

The Peace Ark set sail from Zhejiang Province on Aug. 31 to start the mission.

The ship is China's first hospital ship that has a 10,000-tonnage capacity. It has 300 beds for patients and eight operating rooms.

Source: Xinhua

Editor: Xie Fang