Reported by People’s Daily Online that a China-Italy institute was started in Shanghai on September 17th 2006. “The institute, co-established by China’s prestigious Tongji University, the Polytechnic University of Milan and the Polytechnic University of Turin, is aimed to foster talents in engineering and information technology”, and “a first batch of more than 80 students have been recruited by the China-Italy Institute. They will study at Tongji University for three years and at a cooperative school in Italy for one year. Both Chinese and Italian bachelor’s degrees are to be offered upon their graduation”.

Inspired by some of the recent new themes, and after some quick adjustments, this blog is having a new look, trying to be more seasonable. It is still based on the 3-column-relaxation, but it looks quite different from its past. I hope you like it and feel free to leave your comments.

By the way, to resolve the spam issue, that is also getting serious here, we have put in place some security measures to reduce the possibility of spam attacks. You will notice it when leaving comments.

Enjoy reading.

Reported by Xinhuanet in this article that by 2020 China will double the number of seats available for foreign students to study in universities in China: “By 2020 Chinese universities will enroll 300,000 students from abroad, up from 140,000 in 2005.”

How many universities you can choose from? “A total of 568 universities in China are qualified to enroll foreign students…” And, there will be more scholarships available, as reported that “the Chinese government plans to increase the number of scholarships for foreign students to 10,000 per year from the current 6,700″.

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.