China has a population of one billion, of which 80% live in rural areas. Faced with the changing situation in rural health care work subsequent to the economic structural reform in the vast rural areas and their challenges to the prevention services, appropriate measures in Chinese rural health care work were taken. All levels of leaders of health care and other departments were instructed to adhere to the policy of “prevention first”, to expand the functions and tasks of prevention, to reform the current health organisational structure, to strengthen the three-level health care network and to collect funds from various sources to support health care work and the prevention of disease.