More than 95 percent of 46,000 student visa applications submitted between Oct 1, 2012 and Sept 30, 2013 at the US Consulate General Shanghai were approved.

This accounted for about 10 to 15 percent of the consulate's total work flow.

"Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou continuously top the list for issuing the largest amount of new student visas for Chinese applicants," said John M. Grondelski, the visa unit chief at the Shanghai consulate.

The number of Chinese students enrolled in US institutions of higher education in that period increased from 194,029 to 235,597.

This represents approximately 41,600 additional Chinese students who chose to study in the United States, a 21 percent increase, over the previous year, according to the 2013 Open Doors Report on International Education Exchange.

This is annual report on international academic mobility published by the Institute of International Education with support from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. China leads the world in sending students to the US.

Open Doors also reported that 14,887 US students studied in China in the 2011/12 academic year, an increase of 2 percent.

China remains the fifth most popular, of leading host destinations, for US students studying overseas.