Long Yi, an Indian intern in the west branch of Yangzhou No 1 People's Hospital, examines on a patient in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, Dec 30, 2014. [Photo/CFP]

A 26-year-old Indian intern has become a local star in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, since he started training in the west branch of Yangzhou No 1 People's Hospital.

Long Yi, as his Chinese friends call him, learned about Yangzhou and China from travel magazines nine years ago when he was a high school student. He was so fascinated that he decided to pursue his education in the neighboring country, where he fell in love with the nation during his four years' undergraduate study in Yangzhou University. And he stayed to pursue graduate studies in medicine after graduation.

As a third-year graduate, much of his effort is now spent on experiment and practice in the operating room with his tutor, Long Yi said. He doesn't feel lonely in a foreign country because of the strong friendship that has developed between him and his tutor, who not only supervises his study but also helps him in his daily life, he said.

Long Yi has good command of Chinese and sufficient knowledge of local culture, and he even knows how to sooth a stressed patient by cracking a joke in Yangzhou dialect. Rather than return to his motherland, Long Yi has decided to start a career in China after graduation.