The number of foreigners studying in China hit 141,000 in 2005,
up 27.28 percent from the figure a year earlier, with 86,679 of
them coming to China to study Mandarin (putonghua), the Ministry of
Education said on Monday.
The Ministry's spokesman Wang Xuming told a press conference
that China witnessed the record number of foreign students with the
most diversified countries of origin in 2005.
Statistics from the Ministry show that out of the 141,000, 75.73
percent of them hailed from Asia, 11.67 percent from Europe, 9.37
percent from America, 1.95 percent from Africa, and another 1.28
percent from Oceania.
Zhang Xiuqin, secretary-general with the China Scholarship
Council (CSC) under the ministry, said China has attracted an
increasing number of overseas students because of its economic
growth, social stability, and greater international influence.
China received 884,315 foreign students between 1950 and
2005.
(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2006)
