HANGZHOU -- How valuable is a yuan (14 U.S. cents) in today's China? Perhaps half a bottle of water, one-tenth of a McDonald's cheeseburger, or one-hundredth of a stylish haircut in downtown Beijing.

But at a clinic in East China's Zhejiang province, it is the medical bill of everything from consultation to transfusion to prescribed medicines. Dr. Wu Guangchao is no mercenary.

For the past five decades, Wu has been the sole physician, nurse, acupuncturist and accountant of the clinic in Meitang Village. He is one of the nearly 1 million grassroots medical practitioners in China's vast countryside known as "village doctors."

Wu represents the philanthropic face of the profession. Defying annual inflation, he has maintained 1-yuan services for the past 36 years. Wu uses a rusty coin box to collect fees.

"The practice of medicine is doing good work," said the 73 year old. "Respect and trust from the fellow villagers are what I value most."

In many rural areas, village doctors (once known as barefoot doctors) act as a primary healthcare provider. Wu's main mission is treating common diseases and minor injuries, saving villagers the trouble of trudging miles to larger hospitals in towns.

A typical day of Wu starts around 6 a.m. when the elderly, now the main residents of the village, started to visit. Any emergency calls at night pull Wu out of bed.

"The village has about 600 people, and I remember every patient's condition and medical history," Wu said.

Decades of hard work and dedication have made him one of the most esteemed figures in the village. When he was hospitalized after a bicycle accident, over 100 villagers visited him.