Hello,
I gathered some more details and experiences with the SEH: The internship is at the two locations of the Shanghai East Hospital (Both in Pudong) and open for students in all clinical semesters. It seems to be the largest program for international med-students in China to date in terms of student numbers. On request, shadowing is also allowed for Pre-med students or first-year medical-students, but this involves no hands-on at all. Unfortunately, due to legislation, only students attending any medical faculty outside of China are permitted (...as apparently China has limited mobility for students studying within the country). Students enrolled in any medschool not within China are allowed. Chinese nationals can attend without limitation, as long as they study outside of China.
Only speaking English seems to be completely fine to do any elective in Shanghai, some basic Chinese does help though.
The program claims to be accredited in almost all of the US, Canada and Europe - as teaching international med-students is going on for 10 years now and many med-schools have already had students attend, especially in Germany.
On the down side: You pay for placements. The current fee's involve an application fee of 950 RMB and a monthly program fee of 2300 RMB, which does not include housing. Application can be found online
here.
The tutors in most departments are quite experienced attendings and expert doctors, together with Tongji Medical students. Hands-on is possible, but only after you showed sincere interest for a few days and asked for it (maybe even repeatingly). Such includes OR work, as stitching and assisting or wound debridement on ward. There are so many residents, that it sometimes takes a while to get to do real hands-on. Inserting IV-lines is only done by the nurses, but you may get to practice that if you explain that this would interest you nevertheless.
Shanghai has, besides the work, a nice recreational student life and, since I have always seen several international students present at any time, it can be fun to get to know fellow students and do things together.
Hope this helps
