An article entitled Exchange to improve Chinese teaching reports that “China and Britain have reached an understanding on increasing the number of exchanges of students and teachers over the next five years, as part of efforts to promote Chinese studies in British schools.”

According to the report, “French, German and Spanish are still the top three popular second languages in Britain, but Chinese is gaining popularity slowly because of its culture, history and rapid economic growth.”

Reported by China Daily on July 19th 2006, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) annual survey shows that China’s population of internet users has reached 123 million this year, marked by an increase of 20% compared to last year. Another news
report from Sohu reveals that 82.6% of internet users take the net as their primary source of information.

更新：BBC中文网8月11日发表一篇《英国学生认识中国增新途径》的文章，报道说：“英国三家学术机构内将开办‘孔子学院’，不单教授中文汉语，而且是‘介绍中国的窗口，并展示中国的文化’。”

开办“孔子学院”的三家院校分别为曼彻斯特大学（University of Manchester）、爱丁堡大学（University of Edinburgh）以及伦敦大学亚非学院（School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS）。

这篇报道还详细介绍了“孔子学院”的“来历”和模式：

其实，所谓“孔子学院”并非这三所院校自己单方发起的机构，而是按照中国当局大力推行的推广中国文化政策而设立的。

中国方面的资料显示，中国教育部和国家对外汉语教学领导小组早在2000年已经开始酝酿在海外设立语言推广机构，到2004年正式定名为“孔子学院”，以儒家圣哲孔子作为标记。

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This post gives some interesting thoughts on the question of permission to put a blog in your blogroll:

… put bloggers on your blogroll that you sincerely recommend, whether or not they link back to you. Do it because you want to, not because you want something in return. Do it because you can honestly say “this is worth reading!” Remember, they are a reflection of you and your blog, so think through their inclusion.

And,

You can put anyone and anything you like on your blogroll. You can make up your own guidelines and standards for inclusion, or feature a totally diverse collection. As far as I’m concerned, there are no rules, no etiquette, and no reason to ask permission to put a blog on a blogroll. Can you think of any?

Excellent post on blogging culture!

[ blogroll ] Any time  This definition of [ blogroll ] is from Google. 

[ bookmark ] Any time  This definition of [ bookmark ] is from Google. 

The famous fast food company Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was under fire for its controversial video advertisment showing an old Taoist surrounded by his apprentices enjoying chicken burgers and claiming it as a masterpiece. China Daily has this report citing China Business Post. The article on this weekly financial post criticizing KFC for dishonoring Chinese history and culture.

KFC entered China in 1987, and opened its first shop on November 12 at the downtown area of Qianmen in Beijing. Currently, it has more than 1400 shops in over 200 cities around the country. It employs totally 60,000 staff and its overall annul turnover is about 7.1 billion RMB yuan.