Located to the north of Beijing, Qinghua is where many of the country's leaders including the current Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the predecessor, Hu Jintao, have graduated from.

The university has more than 25,000 students according to the institution's official website, and is especially strong in the field of engineering.

Qinghua's commitment reflects China's growing need to train better staff to work with Portuguese-language countries, given the evolution of trade, which in 2018 alone amounted to $147,354 million (€131,206 million), an increase of 25.31% year-on-year.

Most chinese trade is with Angola and Brazil.

In recent years, China has also become one of the main investors in Portugal, buying stakes in large companies in the areas of energy, insurance, health and banking, while thousands of Chinese nationals have bought homes in Portugal in exchange for gold residence visas.

With Qinghua, 34 universities in mainland China have Portuguese as an optional subject, among which 25 also offer degrees in Portuguese.

In total, more than 1,500 Chinese students now attend courses in Portuguese.