Russia's first Confucius Institute celebrates fifth anniversary

The fifth anniversary of the founding of Russia's first Confucius Institute was celebrated at Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) on Tuesday. The celebration was opened by a choir of students dressed in traditional costumes that performed the Russian folk song "Kalinka" (Snowball Tree) and later sang in Chinese. Officials of the Russian Maritime Province and Vladivostok administration departments, FEFU administrators, and teachers and students from the Confucius Institute were among the more than 200 people who participated in the meeting. Far Eastern Federal University Vice-Rector Kurilov congratulated the director of the Confucius Institute and Chinese language teachers on their great contributions in deepening the friendship between Russia and China. Deputy Consul General of China in Khabarovsk Liu Junguo and Song Liqun also participated. The FEFU Confucius Institute was established on Dec. 21, 2006, in collaboration with China's Heilongjiang University. During the past five years, 2,317 people at the institute have learned the Chinese language and 1,738 others passed different levels of the HSK tests.