Confucius Institutes, non-profit public institutions designed to promote the Chinese language and culture, have helped enhance China's international image and strengthen the mutual understanding between the people of China and those of other countries.

The number of Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms had reached 691 by October 2010, including 322 Confucius Institutes and 369 Confucius Classrooms. They are scattered across 96 countries and regions of the world.

In order to discuss the further development of the Confucius Institutes as well as award certain staffs and Institutes for their excellence, a Confucius Institute Conference was convened every year since 2006.

Following are the top 30 Confucius Institutes (classrooms) of 2011, an title awarded at the 2011 annual conference. Some of them are famous for their excellent language teaching systems; others stand out because of their unique activities and festivals.

   Confucius Institute at Kazan Federal University, Russia

- Operation time: September, 2007

- Chinese Cooperator: Hunan Normal University

Confucius Institute at Kazan Federal University, Russia [hanban.edu.cn]

The institute is located in the picturesque Russian city of Kazan. In 2009, it started 26 Chinese courses for students who had majored in Chinese Language, International Relations, Asian-African History and Chinese Literature. Aside from these coursed, it has held symposiums on Chinese history and culture studies many times, in order to explore more suitable teaching methods for local students. In 2011, the institute dispatched over 20 students as volunteers at the Shenzhen 2011 Universiade.

- Website: http://kpfu.ru/main_page?p_sub=16

   Confucius Institute at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania

- Operation Time: September, 2009

- Chinese Cooperator: Zhejiang University of Science & Technology

Confucius Institute at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania [io.zust.edu.cn]

This Confucius Institute is the second one in Romania, set up to strengthen the educational cooperation between Romania and China, as well as to improve the mutual understanding between the people of Romania and China by providing courses on the topics of Chinese language, Calligraphy and Taichi. Collaborating with the municipal government, the Institute has become a key cooperating partner in the city's bidding for hosting the "European Metropolis of Multi-culture 2020" event. In addition, it has built a "Chinese Self-learning Center", by integrating university libraries and computer systems. Now it has 13,000 books.

- Website: http://confucius.institute.ubbcluj.ro/page.php?id_m=1