The demand for Chinese lessons Boom time for Chinese lessonsAround the world is booming and China has encouraged foreign students by giving out 4 million Chinese text and reference books abroad.

　　The figure was released by the 2003 World Overseas Chinese Organizations Convention that met recently.

　　Chen yujie, director of the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs of the State Council, said at the Beijing conference that China has stepped up efforts to publish and distribute Chinese educational materials in recent years to meet the surging demand from overseas Chinese descendants and Chinese culture enthusiasts.

　　The two major texts on Chinese language, each composed of around 50 volumes, designed for Asian Chinese language schools and European and US weekend schools, have been published along with computer discs.

　　A series of reference books on Chinese geography, history and culture have come out and online courses are offered by the official Website of the China Overseas Exchanges Association.Chen also briefed the conference on China's launch of training programs to enhance the teaching skills of overseas teachers of Chinese.

　　Domestic experts have traveled to around 10 countries in Southeast Asia, Europe and America and have trained more than 9,200 teachers. Also, around 1,300 overseas teachers have been invited to China to attend workshops.

　　Chen attributed the mounting interest in Chinese language to the country's economic performance and strengthening international business ties.

　　By the end of last year, nearly 30 million people from 85 countries and regions were learning standard Chinese, or putonghua, and at least 540,000 foreign students from 120 countries had signed up for the Chinese proficiency test, known as the HSK, which is a national standardized test designed to assess command of the Chinese language.