First Confucius Classroom opens in Uppsala

A Confucius Classroom was jointly launched here Tuesday by the Bolan senior high school in Uppsala, Sweden, together with China's Tianjin Experimental Middle School. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Chen Ling, Party Secretary of the Tianjin Experimental Middle School, said his school and Bolan school have built up deep friendship and trust after they became sister schools in 2003. "The Confucius classroom is established on the basis of mutual complement, mutual benefit and win-win principle. It aims at not only meeting the demand of learning Chinese language and culture, but also improving friendship between the students in China and Sweden," he said. Reine Sjoedin, principal of Bolan Senior High School also said the Confucius Classroom would promote bilateral cooperation between Sweden and China and help promote language and culture in Sweden. "Bolan school is very proud to become the pioneer among Sweden's senior high schools," Sjoedin said. As of July 2010, there were 316 Confucius Institutes and 337 Confucius Classrooms in 94 countries and regions worldwide.