The first Confucius Institute in the United States, to be located at the University of Maryland, will inaugurate in the near future.

One of 9 major projects under "Project of Chinese Bridge", the Confucius Institute Project preliminarily plans to open 100 Confucius institutes around the world and has selected over 10 universities, including Nankai University, Beijing Language and Culture University, Fudan University and Lanzhou University, to establish 16 overseas Confucius institutes to start the project rolling.

The Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland, established by Nankai University, is the first Confucius institute in the U.S. co-sponsored by the China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. Establishment of the Institute opens a new epoch for China to promote teaching of Chinese language in the U.S., especially teaching Chinese language to adults and Chinese language teacher-training. The Institute seeks to foster communication and cooperation of education between China and the U.S by organizing various activities, such as Chinese language training, teacher-training, teaching material compilation, Chinese language and culture seminars, HSK Chinese Proficiency Test and academic symposiums on Chinese language teaching and learning.

(Chinanews.com March 8, 2005)