According to china's government official website, the Ministry of Education recently released the latest statistics on foreign students in China. In 2003, some 77,715 foreign students from 175 countries were studying in 353 universities and other educational institutes scattered throughout 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. The figures exclude Taiwan Province and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

The Chinese government provided scholarships for 6,153 of the students, while the remainder was responsible for their own funding.

About 31 percent, or 24,616, were pursuing degrees. More than 45 percent of the students, 35,353 in all, came from South Korea. There were 12,765 Japanese students and 3,693 from the United States.

Foreign students in China continued to concentrate in municipalities and provinces with more colleges and universities, such as Beijing (29,332 foreign students), Shanghai (13,858) and Tianjin (4,952).