This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. To mark the occasion, we are publishing a series of reports celebrating the city's achievements in different aspects over the past four decades.
Donating blood is a noble act that almost any healthy person can perform. In Shenzhen, more than 4.36 million people have participated in voluntary, unpaid blood donations as of May 31, 2020, contributing 872.9 tons of blood and helping save 1.45 million people, Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.
Shenzhen has created many firsts in the history of donating blood in China.
In 1993, Shenzhen took the lead in promoting blood donation in the country. On May 8 that year, the Red Cross Society of China Shenzhen branch and Shenzhen Blood Center took to the streets to publicize and encourage people to donate blood voluntarily and without compensation.
On that day, a man named Zhong Zhenji became the first voluntary blood donor in Shenzhen. Also on that day, the country’s first blood donation vehicle hit the street to accept blood donations from caring people in Shenzhen.
As an important achievement of Shenzhen's reform and opening up, the Iveco blood donation van has been displayed in the exhibition hall on the third floor of Shenzhen Museum for years.
On Nov. 1, 1995, Shenzhen implemented the country's first regulation on blood donations. In October 1998, the city took the lead in the country in achieving the goal that all donated blood goes to clinical use.
In June 1999, the city's first fixed blood donation station was built on Guiyuan Road in Luohu District. On June 8, 2020, the first 5G-covered blood donation station in Shenzhen was put into service in Longhua District.
Shenzhen is also one of the cities that recorded the most hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) donations in China, according to the Daily.