Confucius Institute founded.

13 May, 2006

The Berlin Free University and the Peking university have co-founded the first school of Confucius studies in Germany. On 27 April, the Chinese ambassador Ma Chanrong, the president of Peking University, Xu Zhihong, and the dean of the Berlin Free University, Dieter Lenzen, officially inaugurated the Confucius Institute in Berlin, which has been backed by the China national office for teaching Chinese as a foreign language. There are over 20 Confucius Institutes worldwide in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. The Institute hopes to promote cultural exchange and communication between the two countries as well as an understanding of the precepts of Confucianism. Currently there are nearly 350 Chinese studies students at the Berlin Free University.