Chinese language craze catches on in Pakistan

Students have a class in the Confucius Institute in Islamabad. (Chinanews.com/Dao Zhinan)

The Confucius Institute in Islamabad, Pakistan was established in 2005 under the joint efforts of China’s Beijing Language and Culture University and Pakistan’s National University for Modern Languages. It offers courses in Chinese language, calligraphy, and tea art.

Thanks to the increasingly close exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, Pakistanis are now experiencing a craze for learning Chinese. Over 1,230 Pakistanis registered for the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HKS) or the Chinese Proficiency Test at the institute this year, nearly a fourfold increase compared with 2015.