MUMBAI: Wuhan was on no one’s radar till only few years back.The epicentre of corona virus is now host to hundreds of medical aspirants from around the world, including India. It became a magnet, attracting medical aspirants from India after it started offering MBBS in English a year back.Hundreds queued up outside Wuhan and 45 Chinese institutes which offer medicine in the lingua franca. Data in 2019 shows that 21,000 Indian students signed up at Chinese medical schools, taking the neighbour to the No 1 position for wannabe doctors. Besides the 45 colleges, some Indians are enrolled in 200-odd colleges where they study in English/Chinese languages.Russia, with 58 institutes enlisted by Medical Council of India , sees a little over 6,000 Indians flying in to pursue MBBS. Yet, as per information from National Board of Examinations, the pass percentage of students, graduated from medical colleges in Russia and China, in Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) in 2015-18 is 12.91% and 11.67% respectively.“Medical aspirants look at all avenues as getting medical admission is very difficult and expensive. Countries like China offer cheaper medical studies and same, if not better, infrastructure as India,” said Karan Gupta, a counsellor who works with students heading abroad.Average tuition for a Chinese medical university is $2,000-3,000 annually, plus $1,000 for living expenses. In 2015, there were over 13,500 Indian students in China, as India ranked among top 10 nations sending students to Chinese varsities.China, a large student-sending country, became the third most-favoured nation of international students after US and UK. It also paced up as a host destination and is the fifth ranked choice for Indians leaving shores for education.“China is selling the medical programme very strongly among Indians. They started teaching in English and their institutes are recognised by WHO,” said another counsellor, Pratibha Jain. With new recruits joining English medium medical course, Gupta and other experts feel students getting back after graduation have a better chance at cracking FMGE and getting a licence to practice in India.