This is NEWS Plus Special English.
The first Confucius Classroom in Bulgaria was opened in the 18th Comprehensive School on Tuesday, the first day of the new school year in the Balkan country.
Five more Confucius Classrooms will be opened in five other towns.
Chinese officials said the opening of this Confucius Classroom created a good platform for further Chinese language training in Bulgaria.
The 18th Comprehensive School was the first Bulgarian school to begin Chinese language teaching in 1992. Since then, the school has greatly contributed to the promotion of the study of the Chinese language in Bulgaria.
Over the past three years, Chinese language teaching has become increasingly popular in Bulgaria. Almost 2,000 children are learning Chinese in the country.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
As the sale of mooncakes from overseas thrives on Chinese e-commerce platforms, officials have warned about the risks of disease and violation of regulations.
The Beijing Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau says most mooncakes contain meat and eggs, which means they could transmit bird flu or foot-and-mouth disease. The long mailing process and relatively short shelf life of the food also make it difficult to ensure product quality.
Online purchases of mooncakes from overseas have been bolstered recently. A random search of overseas purchasing agents for exotic mooncakes can yield more than 10,000 results at taobao.com, China's largest consumer-to-consumer e-commerce platform. Most of the mooncakes aimed at domestic consumers come from Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The Beijing Morning Post reported that several consumers in Beijing experienced delivery problems with mooncakes purchased from overseas vendors, as they were intercepted by the authorities at quarantine checkpoints.
