An instructor shows students how to perform CPR at the Luoshe Center School in Huzhou city, Zhejiang province, on May 8. WANG ZHENG/FOR CHINA DAILY

A growing number of people are learning lifesaving abilities, including CPR. Wang Xiaoyu reports from Hangzhou.

As students at Hangzhou Normal University, in the capital of Zhejiang province, were busily hunting for their parcels at the campus pickup station, some cast curious glances at resuscitation mannequins placed in a kiosk near the entrance. A few even stopped to examine the materials and kits on display.

"We have set up this hands-on first-aid experience kiosk here because about 60 percent of our students live near this location and the high foot traffic helps ensure they are exposed to it," said Lin Chenhong, an instructor at the Red Cross Club on the main campus in Yuhang district.

Lin estimated that about 300 to 400 students try out two first-aid skills — CPR and the Heimlich maneuver — at the kiosk every year, and 60 to 70 percent of them end up enrolling in official first-aid training sessions and gaining related certificates.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a lifesaving technique that involves pressing firmly and regularly on the chest and giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to help save the life of a person having a cardiac arrest before professional help arrives. The Heimlich maneuver is a method of using abdominal thrusts to force air from the lungs and dislodge any object stuck in the windpipe of someone who is choking.

"We hope the little kiosk will spark an interest in first aid among more students, especially those who are not studying medicine, and motivate them to understand the significance of learning these skills," Lin said.