Relational hospitalization and relational trust is a cognitive shortcut based on which Chinese doctors and patients make their initial trust judgments. It’s a manifestation of the Chinese “relationship-oriented” social theories about survival in the medical interaction field. Doctor-patient initial trust in rural areas of China is a kind of relational trust built in the community of acquaintances. In the rural medical situation，the doctor-patient shared decision-makinginteractive model，lower risk perception and less emotional stress of patients decrease the difficulty in establishing doctor-patient initial trust. Since the foundation for initial trust in traditional doctor-patient relationship has gradually been shaken，and the institution-based trust has not been established in the course of social transformation，it’s necessary to introduce perspectives of cultural psychology，and to reflect on the importance of building doctor-patient trust under concrete socio-cultural contexts.