International students at the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine take a massage course. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A traditional Chinese medicine college in Shanghai sparks passion.

The Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has vowed to boost the development of TCM education around the world where more than 180 countries and regions have adopted this medical style, according to Xu Jianguang, president of the university.

Established in 1956, the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine is among the earliest four TCM colleges in China. Over the past few years, the university has made a series of contributions toward the development of TCM and talent cultivation.

"TCM is gaining wider recognition in the world as an increasing number of researchers have been winning global awards in recent years. This medical style is becoming more widely used across the world," says Xu.

He says the university has identified the globalization of TCM as the key to further developing the field.

As an important destination for international students to learn TCM, the university says the number of such students has been on the rise.

As of the end of 2016, there were more than 1,500 international students enrolled in long-term academic programs at the university, with 85 percent pursuing degree programs.

The number of international students who are studying for degree programs accounts for about 15 percent of the university's full-time students and more than 20 percent of its undergraduates are international students.

In 2016, the university conducted nearly 100 short-term training projects, such as international acupuncture training classes in Shanghai and summer schools for different language-speaking groups, including Chinese, English, French, Japanese and Korean. A total of 1,243 trainees took TCM-related training courses.