The number of the Chinese who had studied abroad over the past three decades between 1978 and the end of 2006 topped one million, and more than 70 percent of them are those who had left China for overseas after the year 2000, discloses Fang Maotian, director of the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange, at a press briefing of the 12th China International Education Exhibition Tour on Tuesday.

According to Fang, the relevant authoritative department of the Chinese government has stepped up its work to send more government-funded students overseas, whereas there is also an apparent rise in number of the Chinese who go abroad to study at their own expenses.

In order to provide a fast, objective and accurate information consultancy service for those going abroad to study either at on a government-sponsored scholarship or at their own expenses, the 12th China International Education Exhibition Tour (CIEET) will be held successively in Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Nanjing and Guangzhou from March 3 to 20, with more than 300 partaking overseas colleges, universities and educational institutions from such leading destinations as Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Hong Kong.

Since its inception, CIEET has played a vital, important role in publicizing the Chinese government policy in this regard, providing much balanced information service for those going abroad to study; guiding, standardizing and ensuring the healthy growth of the overseas education market for the Chinese to study at their own expenses; while spurring the exchanges and cooperation between Chinese institutions of higher learning and relevant agencies and their overseas counterparts.

By People's Daily Online