Last Wednesday, Yan Dongsheng, deputy director of the Ministry of Culture's finance division, said that for setting up cultural centers overseas, China had invested about 1.33 billion yuan ($214 million) by the end of 2014. This year, the budget for developing and running the institutes abroad is 360 million yuan, up 181 percent compared to last year.

China set up its first culture centers in Mauritius and the Republic of Benin in 1988. From 2002, it opened more, in Cairo, Paris, Malta, Berlin and Tokyo.

They are "windows" to showcase Chinese culture, Yan said.

Yu said that Chinese high-tech companies will also join the campaign to promote China's technological innovations in the overseas markets.

In Cairo, the center that was built in 2002 has been a good platform for locals to know China and learn about Chinese art, music, dance, cuisines and languages, says Chen Dongyun, director of the Cairo center.

Standing next to the pyramids, the five-story Cairo center has trained more than 8,000 Egyptians in Chinese languages and martial arts. In addition, it offers regular classes on Chinese cooking and kite-making.

Chinese movie weeks and exhibitions of traditional arts such as calligraphy are also available.

Chen, the director, says that the number of the center's followers on Facebook reached 10,000 in less than a year. More than 11,000 attended a Happy Spring Festival activity held by the center at a Cairo park, double the number of visitors to the same event last year.

Unlike the Confucius Institutes that mainly focus on teaching Chinese language, China's culture centers lean more toward promoting culture and showing the lives of ordinary Chinese, says Chen.

(China Daily 02/17/2015 page21)