Amidst the pine forest in front of the Administrative Building of Tongji Medical College, grows the only olive tree on the whole campus. This inconspicuous tree carries an unforgettable past and friendship between Tongji Medical College and Germany.

On October 12, 1984, then Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Helmut Kohl, visited China and Tongji Medical College accompanied by Mr. HUANG Zhizhen, the Governor of Hubei Province. The German delegation visited the campus, met with German medical students, and planted this tree species brought from Germany in front of the former library, named Sino-German Friendship Tree. In 2006, it was moved to where it is now because of the reconstruction of the library.

The German representative who planted the tree was Professor Dr. Paul Gerhardt (middle), representative of Heidelberg University and President of German-Sino Medical Association, and it was Academician Qiu Fazu, former Honorary President of Tongji Medical University, who squatted down to hold the saplings.

Time flies, this olive tree standing quietly in the campus is about to usher in its 36th spring. It is this tree who has rooted the friendship between China and Germany on the land of TJMC, sticking to the sentiment that Tongji originated from Germany, and witnessing the development and changes of Tongji Medical College of HUST.