Prior to the revolution in China, rural health services were virtually nonexistent. The countryside was ravaged by epidemics and millions of landless peasants suffered from gross malnutrition. Venereal disease and schistosomiasis were rampant. Solution of the problems arising from insufficient medical personnel in the countryside was sought by the following means: Redistribution of existing medical forces was accomplished by encouraging volunteer doctors, nurses, and health technicians to move from the city to the countryside; the People's Liberation Army established a network of medical schools, hospitals, and clinics to bring medical services to the people; and mobile medical teams from city hospitals worked on a rotational basis in the countryside. A key element in the creation of new rural health forces has been the training by mobile medical teams of paramedical workers from among the peasantry. Young peasants selected by their fellow villagers receive basic and continuing medical training and live and work among the people as peasant—doctors. By this means, it is hoped that within a few decades China will have a huge army of medical workers, firmly rooted in the countryside, dedicated to serving the health needs of 500 million peasants.