The project was designed to help college students, who have been suffering from depression, to get better through both psychological and medical care.

Li Ningzhong, a 1999 graduate student in finance at Beijing University, is the initiator of the project, who has been hampered by depression for more than two years but finally beat the disease down.

"I have been very depressed in college, and several times the disease nearly led to my suicide," Li said at the opening ceremony of the project.

Under a doctor's care, Li recovered from the disease and restarted his life again, with an optimistic attitude.

"I have noticed that there are still many college students who are suffering from mental depression, and that made me decide to start this programme," Li said.

The Psychological Department of Beijing University and Beijing Medical University gave Li support when he prepared this programme, and mental disease experts from those two units promised to provide free consultations for students suffering from depression.

Professor Kang Chengjun from the Beijing University Hospital said at the ceremony that more than 60 people suffering from depression visited him last year, and "most of them have had the inclination to commit suicide."

Li Ningzhong came to see Professor Kang last November, soon after two teachers from Beijing University's Guanghua Business Management School suspected him of trying to commit suicide by jumping down from the fourth floor of a student dormitory on campus.

"I just broke out then, and I felt that I could no longer manage to continue my life," Li recalled his experiences when he was really depressed.

After three months of rehabilitation at the hospital, Li conquered the mental disease and is happy again.

Professor Chen Xueshi, a prestigious psychological expert, revealed that depression has led to more than one-fourth of the suicide cases in the country in the past decades.

Special research focusing on mentally ill patients at eight selected universities during 1991-1995 revealed that the suicide caused by mental depression is 24 per 100,000 students.

According to their promotion plan, a series of publicity activities will be launched at different colleges nationwide with the help of the Ministry of Education.

The latest news from the Ministry of Health said in the 10th Five-year Plan period (2001-05), China will carry out large-scale mental illness investigations and research nationwide.

(China Daily 04/19/2000)