Ulan Bator, May 2 (Xinhua) -- An opening ceremony was held Friday at the Mongolian National University to formally launch the Confucius Institute in the land-locked Asian country.
The Mongolian Confucius Institute was jointly established by China's Shandong University and the Mongolian National University under the supervision of of the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese.
The institute will facilitate Chinese language learning and boost the understanding of Chinese culture among the Mongolian people, said Zhan Tao, president of Shandong University.
More and more Mongolian students have begun to learn Chinese in recent years and more than 40 schools have started offering lessons on Chinese, said Tserensodnom Gantsog, president of the Mongolian National University.
"I hope the institute could contribute to the spread of Chinese and boost the mutual understanding of the two peoples," Ts. Gantsog said.
The Mongolian Confucius Institute trained more than 200 students during its trial operation of nearly one year, he added.
Changing
Inner Mongolia: Pastoral Mongolian Society and the Chinese State (Oxford
Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)
