MUMBAI, Nov 23: China's visiting President Hu Jintao on Thursday met the family of an Indian doctor who died while treating Chinese troops during the Sino-Japanese war in the 1930s and 40s and has become a symbol of warming ties between Beijing and New Delhi.

Ten members of Dwarkanath Kotnis's family met Mr Hu at the Taj Hotel, where he is staying, and gifted him a handcrafted bedspread from Solapur town, where the doctor was born.

They also gave Mr Hu a book and a video disc of a Bollywood film on the doctor, who died in 1942.

“We are very happy that he spent time with us trying to understand our lifestyle,” said 85-year-old Manorama Kotnis, Dwarkanath's sister.

The Chinese leader, in turn, gifted the Kotnis family an album of photographs of Kotnis during his time in China.

“I fully appreciate what doctor Kotnis has done towards maintaining Indo-Chinese friendship,” Mr Hu told the family during his 15-minute meeting.

Kotnis served Chinese soldiers during the 1937-1945 war and died at the front in 1942. He married a Chinese nurse named Quo Qinglan, who remarried later and now lives near Dalian, in northeastern China. She visited the family in 2004.

The family home in central Mumbai displays sepia photos of their lost brother. Family members said Hu's visit showed Kotnis still has influence on Chinese medical practices.

“China has adopted some of his (Kotnis) thought processes. Go where the patients are, don't wait for them to come to you,” said Anil Khot, Kotnis's nephew.

Kotnis's life has been documented in two feature films -- an Indian Bollywood movie “Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani” (The Immortal Lifestory of Dr Kotnis) and a Chinese movie, `Ke Dl Hua D'i Fu’ (“Dr. D.S. Kotnis”).—AFP