China opens 475 Confucius Institutes worldwide

The 9th Confucius Institute Conference is held in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Dec. 7, 2014. By far, The Confucius Institute have 475 institutes and another 851 Confucius Classrooms in 126 countries or regions worldwide, with 3.45 million registered students in cumulative terms. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

China now has 475 Confucius Institutes in 126 countries and regions.

According to a statement released by the Confucius Institute headquarters during the institute conference in Xiamen, there are also 851 Confucius Classrooms in middle and primary schools. The institutes and classrooms have received a total of 3.45 million students.

Established in 2004, the Confucius Institute is a non-profit public institution which promotes Chinese language and culture abroad.

There are about 100 million Mandarin learners around the world, more than four times of the number ten years ago, the statement said.

During the past ten years, about 100,000 teachers, volunteers and managers have been involved with the institutes, which have also trained more than 200,000 Mandarin teachers in more than 100 countries.