China's Top Departments: Cardiology at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital

If you need complex coronary intervention, a TAVR or other structural heart procedure, arrhythmia ablation or advanced heart failure care, the Department of Cardiology at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital is one of China's most established cardiovascular destinations — one of the three major cardiovascular centers in China, built on the Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute and a WHO Collaborating Center since the 1980s. The hospital's Concord Senior Medical Center international care platform has served patients from more than 50 countries, with direct billing arrangements with dozens of major insurers and TPAs.

About the Hospital

Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital (also known as the Guangdong Provincial Academy of Medical Sciences and the Affiliated Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital of Southern Medical University) is a Grade 3A (tertiary, class A) large general public hospital and one of the largest and strongest public hospitals in South China. Founded in 1946 and formerly known as the Guangzhou Central Hospital, it is now a designated site of China's National Cardiovascular Regional Medical Center. In the national performance assessment of tertiary public hospitals, the hospital has repeatedly received the highest grade A++ and ranks in the top 1% nationwide; in the 2023 edition of the Fudan Institute's China Hospital Rankings, the hospital is rated A+++ overall, with its cardiovascular specialty among the top in the country (No. 6 nationally in the specialty ranking).

• Grade: Grade 3A general hospital; national tertiary public hospital performance grade A++ (top 1% nationwide); Fudan overall grade A+++
• Academic strength: 18 National Key Clinical Specialties and 36 Guangdong Provincial Key Clinical Specialties; six directly affiliated research institutes including the Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute
• Cardiovascular strengths: Designated site of the provincial–ministerial joint "National Cardiovascular Regional Medical Center" (2019); holds organ transplant licenses for heart, lung, liver and kidney; annual heart transplant volume has ranked among the top three in China for four consecutive years, placing it among the world's top ten heart transplant centers; in 2023 the Department of Cardiac and Great Vessel Surgery became the first and only medical institution to receive the Guangdong Provincial Government Quality Award
• Campuses: Dongchuan, Pingzhou and Huifu campuses; about 2,772 beds (2025 figure)
• Address: No. 106 Zhongshan 2nd Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province (central urban area)
• Transport: Located in the central Yuexiu District of Guangzhou with convenient public transport. Guangzhou is a core city of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area; Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport offers international and Southeast Asian routes, and the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail connects to Hong Kong West Kowloon — convenient for patients from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas
• International services: The hospital operates the Concord Senior Medical Center, a public-hospital international care platform and the first in China to adopt the operating model of a private hospital from outside the mainland (established 1996). It serves international patients, Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan compatriots, foreign nationals and premium insurance clients, has received patients from more than 50 different countries over the years, and has direct billing arrangements with dozens of major domestic and international insurers and TPAs. Under the "Hong Kong–Macao Drug and Device Connect" policy it was among the first to introduce 25 internationally advanced drugs and devices, and in 2026 it was selected as one of the first pilot hospitals for international medical services in Guangdong Province. In 2004 it was voted "the mainland medical institution most trusted by Hong Kong citizens" in a Hong Kong reader poll

About the Department

The Department of Cardiology was founded in 1958 and is built on the Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute. It is one of the largest and most advanced cardiovascular medical centers in South China (one of the three major cardiovascular centers in China). The department is a National Key Clinical Specialty and a Guangdong Provincial Key Medical Specialty, serves as the Guangdong Provincial Quality Control Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, and is a leading cardiovascular center in South China integrating clinical care, teaching and research.

• International platform: The affiliated Cardiovascular Institute has served as the WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Cardiovascular Diseases since the 1980s — the WHO's only designated collaborating center for cardiovascular diseases in the Western Pacific and China
• Scale: Seven general wards plus a cardiac intensive care unit, with 292 beds (including 17 ICU beds); 72% of physicians are senior-level; 16 doctoral supervisors and 29 master's supervisors
• Subspecialty groups (8): coronary heart disease, arrhythmia, hypertension, great vessels, adult congenital heart disease, heart failure, cardiac rehabilitation and cardiac intensive care
• Volume: About 17,000 inpatients per year and over 1,000 specialty outpatient visits per day; each year about 6,000 coronary interventions, 1,500 radiofrequency ablations, 700 permanent pacemaker implants, 200 structural heart valve interventions and 200 aortic endovascular repairs
• Subspecialty clinics: hypertension, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, radiofrequency/pacemaker follow-up, heart failure, cardiac rehabilitation, and cardiovascular sleep apnea clinics

Academic Standing and Accreditation

• National Key Clinical Specialty in Cardiovascular Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Key Medical Specialty, Guangdong Provincial Quality Control Center for Cardiovascular Diseases
• WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Cardiovascular Diseases (the WHO's only designated cardiovascular collaborating center in the Western Pacific and China)
• National Health Commission training base for cardiovascular interventional diagnosis and treatment (coronary, arrhythmia and congenital heart disease), with national quality-control center status for these three fields since 2009; recognized in 2018 as an outstanding training base under the Chinese Medical Doctor Association's cardiovascular interventional training program
• National cardiovascular subspecialty training base, NHC clinical pharmacist training base, NMPA cardiovascular clinical drug trial site, and China Association of Rehabilitation Medicine cardiac rehabilitation training base
• One of the first "American Heart Association (AHA) Professional Demonstration Centers" (2013)
• Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coronary Heart Disease Prevention and Treatment and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Clinical Pharmacology; doctoral/master's degree programs and a postdoctoral station
• Long ranked among the top nationally in the Fudan cardiovascular specialty rankings (No. 6 nationally in the 2023 specialty ranking; industry media report that it ranked No. 4 in the specialty list for seven consecutive years)

Core Technologies and Signature Conditions

1. Coronary intervention (PCI, a core strength)
   • The team led by Prof. Chen Jiyan performed China's first ECMO-supported percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion (CTO). Techniques include rotational atherectomy and intravascular ultrasound, with expertise in complex cases such as unprotected left main disease, multivessel disease, high-risk lesions, calcified lesions and chronic total occlusions
2. Arrhythmia intervention
   • Radiofrequency ablation, permanent pacemaker implantation, leadless pacing and left atrial appendage closure, covering atrial fibrillation, premature ventricular contractions/ventricular tachycardia, supraventricular tachycardia and bradycardia
3. Structural heart intervention (a highlight)
   • Asia's first TAVR with a cerebral protection device and China's first one-stop TAVR plus aortic endovascular repair; the first in South China to perform transcatheter edge-to-edge mitral valve repair (TEER). Suitable for aortic stenosis, mitral regurgitation and similar conditions
4. Great vessel and peripheral vascular intervention
   • Aortic endovascular repair for aortic dissection/aneurysm; peripheral vascular (carotid, renal, lower-limb artery, etc.) intervention
5. Adult congenital heart disease and pulmonary hypertension
   • Interventional treatment of adult congenital heart disease; comprehensive care for pulmonary embolism and venous thrombosis, pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure
6. Heart failure and heart transplantation
   • Comprehensive care for end-stage heart failure; the hospital's heart transplant volume has ranked among China's top three for four consecutive years, placing it among the world's top ten heart transplant centers
7. Cardiac rehabilitation
   • Prof. Sun Jiazhen established China's first cardiac rehabilitation ward and pioneered cardiac surgical rehabilitation nationwide — a trailblazer in Chinese cardiac rehabilitation; now a national/China Association of Rehabilitation Medicine cardiac rehabilitation training base
8. Hypertension
   • The IPAD study on blood-pressure lowering in people with high-normal blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, led by Prof. Feng Yingqing, was incorporated into the Chinese Guidelines for Hypertension 2018
9. A tradition of innovation
   • China's first coronary angiography (1972); China's first artificial aortic valve replacement (1975); among the first in China to perform balloon mitral valvuloplasty (1985); China's first AI + 5G remote minimally invasive cardiac surgery (2019)

Expert Team

• Prof. Chen Jiyan: MD, PhD supervisor, State Council Special Allowance expert, Chief Expert of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Director of the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coronary Heart Disease Prevention and Treatment; Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC); Vice President of the Cardiovascular Physicians Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association; Vice Chairman of the Asian Heart Society Council; Chairman of the Guangdong Society of Interventional Cardiology. Expert in valvular and coronary intervention; in 1985 he performed China's first percutaneous pulmonary and mitral balloon valvuloplasty
• Prof. Wu Shulin: Chief Physician and Professor; specializes in arrhythmia, heart failure, hypertension and cardiomyopathy, especially catheter ablation for tachycardias
• Prof. Jing Zhicheng: Chief Physician and Professor; specializes in congenital heart disease, left atrial appendage closure for atrial fibrillation, pulmonary embolism and venous thrombosis, pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure
• Prof. Luo Jianfang: Head of the structural heart intervention team (Asia's first TAVR with a cerebral protection device; China's first TAVR plus aortic endovascular repair)
• Prof. Zhan Xianzhang: Chief Physician and Professor; pacemaker implantation and radiofrequency ablation
• Prof. Feng Yingqing: Hypertension specialist; led the IPAD study (incorporated into the Chinese Guidelines for Hypertension 2018)
• Dr. Fang Xianhong: Chief Physician; radiofrequency ablation for atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias, left bundle branch pacing, leadless pacing and left atrial appendage closure
• Prof. Liu Yuan: Chief Physician, Professor and MD at the Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute; expert in complex coronary and peripheral vascular intervention; member of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI)
• Dr. Liu Yuanhui: MD, master's supervisor; focuses on coronary, great-vessel and structural heart intervention; Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC)
• Founding figures: Feng Jianzhang, Xuan Xiangyao, Huang Zhendong, Chen Chuanrong, Lin Shuguang, Sun Jiazhen and others pioneered fields including cardiac catheterization, the epidemiology of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, valvular intervention, clinical pharmacology and cardiac rehabilitation

Conditions We Treat

• Coronary heart disease, angina and myocardial infarction, especially complex/chronic total occlusions (CTO), unprotected left main disease, multivessel disease and calcified lesions
• Arrhythmia: atrial fibrillation, premature ventricular contractions/ventricular tachycardia, supraventricular tachycardia, bradycardia
• Structural heart disease: aortic stenosis (TAVR), mitral regurgitation (transcatheter repair), patent foramen ovale/atrial septal defect/ventricular septal defect/patent ductus arteriosus and other adult congenital heart disease
• Great vessel disease: aortic dissection, aortic aneurysm; peripheral vascular disease
• Heart failure and end-stage heart failure (assessment for heart transplantation/ventricular assist)
• Pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary embolism and venous thrombosis, right heart failure
• Hypertension (including resistant hypertension)
• Cardiac rehabilitation (post-surgical, heart failure, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation)

Address and Contact

• Address: No. 106 Zhongshan 2nd Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
• Main line: 020-83827812; Fax: 020-83827712
• Website: www.gdghospital.org.cn (English: www.gdghospital.org.cn/en)
• International care platform: Concord Senior Medical Center (East Ward, within the hospital; outpatient and inpatient services)
• Campuses: Dongchuan Campus (Zhongshan 2nd Road), Pingzhou Campus (No. 58 Yong'an Middle Road, Pingzhou, Nanhai District, Foshan), Huifu Campus

For a quick overview of the department, see the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital Cardiology department page.

Ready to explore cardiovascular care in Guangzhou? Contact Medora for a free, personalized consultation. We'll review your condition, connect you with the right subspecialty team, and coordinate your entire journey — from medical record translation to treatment and follow-up.