In October 2009 a faculty of Polish studies opened at Harbin University in northeast China, Manchuria province, as a result of an agreement signed with the University of Gdańsk in May 2009. Chinese students will study the Polish language for a year in Harbin and then study for two years at the University of Gdańsk. In their fourth year, they will write their BA dissertations in Harbin. Teachers from the University of Gdańsk will teach Polish studies at Harbin University. The first group of Chinese students is expected in Gdańsk in October 2010.

Launching Polish studies at Harbin University is a major success. Previously, the Beijing Foreign Studies University was the only higher education institution in China offering Polish language studies.

The Polish studies faculty at Harbin University opened just a few months after the two universities signed a cooperation agreement.

The University of Gdańsk delegation also held a number of working meetings aimed at expanding collaboration between the two universities. The Chinese expressed an interest in sending their students to PhD courses in physics, biology, chemistry, biotechnology and oceanography at the University of Gdańsk. Harbin has an interesting historical link to Poland. The city was founded by a Pole, engineer Adam Szydłowski, in 1898, during the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Another Pole, engineer Stanisław Kierbedź, designed a railway bridge over the Sungari river in Harbin.