On April 17, a delegation of Wuhan Municipal People’s Government visited Brazil and signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Friendly Exchange and Cooperation between City of Wuhan of the People’s Republic of China and City of Sao Paulo of the Federative Republic of Brazil, marking the official establishment of friendly exchange city relationship between the two cities. Sao Paulo became the 94th international friendly exchange city of Wuhan, and the third Brazilian city to establish friendly exchange relations with Wuhan after Sao Luis and Foz do Iguacu.

Wuhan and Sao Paulo have made significant achievements in economic, trade, and people-to-people exchanges. A number of Wuhan enterprises have established branches and invested in major construction projects in Sao Paulo. In 2008, Hubei University and Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) established Brazil's first Confucius Institute in collaboration. As of now, the Institute has set up 16 classrooms in three states of Brazil, with over 30,000 registered students. Nearly a thousand students have come to Hubei University for exchange programs. The Confucius Institute at the UNESP received from the Confucius Institute Headquarters in China, among more than 500 institutes, three times the "Confucius Institute of the Year" award in 2010, 2012 and 2016, becoming an important platform for promoting people-to-people exchanges between China and Brazil. Thanks to the joint efforts of Hubei University and the Confucius Institute at UNESP, Wuhan and Sao Paulo signed the MOU and officially became friendly exchange cities.

Luis Antonio Paulino, winner of the Friendship Envoy Award at the inaugural Orchid Award ceremony, participated in the launch of the Confucius Institute of Hubei University at the UNESP. He has been serving as the Brazilian director of the Institute since then. He is committed to the educational and cultural exchanges between China and Brazil, infusing vigor and vitality into China-Brazil friendship.