Backgrounder: University of Macao's campus on Hengqin island

MACAO, Dec. 20 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the new campus of the University of Macao (UM) on Hengqin island on Saturday.

The following are the basic facts about UM's campus on Hengqin island:

Hengqin is situated in the south of Zhuhai, a coastal city of south China's Guangdong Province. It is separated from Macao by the Pearl River Estuary.

In June 2009, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed a decision, authorizing the Macao Special Administrative Region jurisdiction over 1.09 square km of land located on the eastern coast of the island, where UM's new campus is located.

A prestigious public school in Macao, the UM's old campus occupied a hilly strip of no more than 0.05 square km with just over 6,600 students due to limited land.

The new campus, inaugurated in 2013, is able to accommodate 10,000 students with state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities, including the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal Very Large Scale Integration and the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine.

An undersea tunnel was built to enable 24-hour traffic between the campus and Macao. Faculty staff, students, and visitors are able to access the campus through the tunnel without going through any border control.