HARBIN, April 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Yang Yumin, a farmer from the suburbs of Harbin, the capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has been living a full life with a transplanted heart for 13 years.

He is the longest survivor of a heart transplant in China.

A special ceremony was held Tuesday to celebrate the feat at the No. 2 Hospital attached to the Harbin University of Medical Sciences, where the operation was performed.

Yang contracted ectatic myocarditis in 1991, and before the operation he could neither sit nor lie down, nor walk, plus heart failure.

Xia Qiuming, a well-known cardiac surgeon, performed the transplant on April 26, 1992.

Already in his 50s, the easy-going Yang now has a 12-year-old daughter and operates a small catering business with his wife.

"I've just finished a health checkup. According to the medical report, I am doing fine with the transplanted heart except minor hydrocardia caused by rejection but will be put right after taking some medicine," said a gleeful Yang.

Approximately 50,000 patients have received heart transplants throughout the world, 76 percent of whom have a survival rate of five years, with the longest survival record being 30 years. The first heart transplant in China was done in Shanghai in 1978.