China has set up its first post-doctoral Russian language department in an effort to train more high-level professionals for Sino-Russian contacts and exchanges.

Two researchers have began to work in the newly-created department in Heilongjiang University, the strongest Russian teaching institute in China located in Heilongjiang Province, which borders Russia in the west.

The Harbin-based university has cultivated more than 8,000 fluent Russian-speaking professionals since it was established in 1941. Some of them have become renowned experts, scholars, senior government officials and diplomats.

The University has also contributed to China's Russian studies by compiling more than 220 Russian dictionaries, textbooks, translated works and other special works.