Founded in 1988, the International Center for Chinese Language and Culture at Tsinghua University has now over 100 faculty members, and they all hold a M.A. or Ph.D. degree. Since its inception, it has had more than 8,000 international students to study Chinese language and culture in its long-term programs, and more than 5,000 in its short-term programs. The Center has close affiliations in research and teaching with a number of universities abroad, offering credit courses for their students and regularly sending our professors to teach courses on their campuses. With its growing capacity and good reputation in teaching, and current achievements in collaborations with the strong foreign universities, the Center has become an important window of the university and SHSS in their collaborations with foreign institutions.

　　Tsinghua University is the cradle for teaching the Chinese language to internationals in New China, the prelude to which was the fact that a group of diplomats from East European countries came to study Chinese at Tsinghua half a century ago. Since the 1980s, with the deepening of the “open-door” policy, teaching Chinese to internationals has taken on added significance as an important cause of our nation to pursue, and has become a brisk and lively component of higher education in China. Closely following the general agenda of the university to build itself into an open world-class university, the Center will continue to increase our enrollment for international students and teaching quality, and in the meantime, to lead the international students to have an objective and positive picture of China, and encourage them to pursue higher degrees. At present, there are about 600 students in our long-term Chinese programs and about 400 in the short-term Chinese programs, and the Center has set up exchange programs in Chinese with Northwestern University, the University of Washington, the College of William & Mary, the Syracuse University, and so on in the U.S.A., and Melbourne University in Australia and Philis Women’s College in Japan. At the same time, the Center is charged with the mission to teach Mandarin in Hong Kong and Macau, and it offers summer courses in advanced Chinese in collaboration with Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University , and so on. The Center also offers required courses in Chinese at the academic level for international graduate students at Tsinghua, and selective courses in Chinese for international students on their government’s fund and for exchange students from foreign universities.

　　Currently, there are 9 classes ranging from level 101 to 501, suitable for beginners as well as advanced learners. For each class there are required courses and selective courses, and the students should take 20 hours of required courses a week, but have freedom as to what and how many selective courses they want to take. The Center has a rigorous policy on attendance and examinations, and only those students who have a good attendance record and have passed the examinations with satisfaction can receive their certificate and grade report.

　　The Center enrolls students twice every year, and international students can get the application form by contacting the Office of International Students at Tsinghua University, and they should contact the same office for their visa application too.

　　Currently, the director of the Centre is Professor Sun Mingjun, and the associate directors are Professor Ding Xia, Associate Professor Dong Shiwei, Associate Professor Liu Dong.

　　Address: International Center for Chinese Language & Culture,
　　　　　　Tsinghua University , Beijing, China
　　Postal code: 100084
　　Tel: 86-010-6278 2841
　　Fax: 86-010-6278 4534
　　E-mail: hanyuzhx@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn