China's first joint Sino-foreign medical college will be built in Xixian New Area, a national urban development zone in Shaanxi province.

The newly designed project, with total investment of 5 billion yuan ($814 million) from Northwest University in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province, University of California San Diego in the United States, and the Xixian New Area management committee, will begin construction early next year, said Fang Guanghua, chancellor of Northwest University.

According to Fang, the project will create an international medical town of teaching, healthcare, detection and other health functions in Xixian New Area.

"It will be a world-class international medical and health platform in western China and the new heights of medical education and health care industries along the newly developing Silk Road economic belt," Fang said.

UCSD is an important US academic development powerhouse and has produced 20 Nobel Prize winners, of whom five are currently teaching at the school. Its biological disciplines are on the top in the United States, and its medical school is one of the best in medical education in the US.

Northwest University, a comprehensive university with the longest history in Northwest China, has made a continuous effort to enrich its academic disciplines.

According to the project plan, the joint medical college will introduce a new medical personnel training institution and will train medical talent using a US training model and management and operation system.

The college will have routine medical disciplines such as basic medicine, clinical medicine, nursing and public health, and it will also have special disciplines including nutrition, care of the elderly and cosmetic surgery.

An international hospital is also planned for the school's clinical applications.

According to the plan, the college, the international hospital and a test center will be built in phases over the following three to five years.