The establishment of a national health system in the Republic of China during the “Nanjing Decade” (1928—1937) is a good example of an attempt to realize ambitious public health plans with scarce resources and medical personnel. Having achieved political unification of the country after years of war and economic devastation, the Nationalist authorities in Nanjing in 1928 established the first Ministry of Health in the country's history, which was later transformed into the National Health Administration. The article shows how a group of medical reformers from the Peking Union Medical College set about establishing the institutional framework for Chinese health care, as well as pioneering the rural health care. It focuses on the main leader of Chinese health care during this period, Dr. J. Heng Liu, as well as the pioneer of rural health care, Dr. C.C.Chen, who acted as the leader of the medical part of the social experiment in Dingxing County.