A National Center for Children's Health was opened in both Beijing and Shanghai on June 1.

The center is based at three of the country's best children's hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai.

In Beijing, the center is based at the Beijing Children's Hospital under Capital Medical University. In Shanghai, it is based at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University and the Shanghai Children's Medical Center under Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The center will focus on treatment of complicated illnesses and training of pediatricians to meet rising demand. It will also function as a data collection center on major illnesses affecting children in China and an epidemic monitoring and research body.

"One of the urgent priorities is to deepen research on birth defects and improve diagnosis of illness such as congenital heart diseases," said Ni Xin, director of the Beijing Children's Hospital.

Statistics show that by the end 2015, China had 227 million children under the age of 14, accounting for about 16.52 percent of the national population.

The center will help balance medical resources by raising standards of children's hospitals in neighboring cities, Ni said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2017)