BEIJING -- China has half finished its goal to open 500 Confucius Institutes, the Chinese-language-promoting institutions named after ancient philosopher Confucius, an official said here Thursday.A total of 256 Confucius Institutes and 58 Confucius classrooms have so far been established in 81 countries, compared with China’s goal to have 500 such institutes as of 2010, said Xu Lin, director of the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.

The number exceeded the planned 100 institutes as of 2008, said Xu, who is also general director of the Beijing-based Confucius Institute Headquarters.She said people across the world have shown great interests in the Chinese language in recent years.