Against a background of problems in delivering rural health care in the Jiujiang district of China, this paper outlines the development of a relevant 3-year SSO (Strengthening the training of clinical skills, Strengthening preventive medicine education, and Optimizing curricular structure) programme at Jiujiang Medical College (JMC). Some comparisons between JMC and the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIUSM) are made, and the possibility of applying problem-based learning to JMC is discussed.