In the evening of January 27,2006, Chinese Embassy to Latvia held a "Chinese Language Bridge" reception party to celebrate the Spring Festival of 2006. Ambassador Zhang Limin and about 100 Latvian Chinese language teachers and students, and principals of the schools that had Chinese language courses, attended the party.

In his speech, the ambassador briefed about the progress of Chinese language teaching gained in the previous year in Latvia. He spoke highly of the hard work by Chinese language workers. Chinese Spring Festival, the ambassador said, had become ever more popular in the world.

Chinese language study in Latvia can be traced back to over 100 years ago. Systematic teaching of Chinese language has also 20 years of history. Since the founding of diplomatic relationship between the two countries in 1991, cultural and educational exchanges have kept growing. The Chinese government gave much importance to Chinese language teaching in Latvia, having provided teachers, scholarships, teaching facilities and textbooks.

Of recent years, learning Chinese language has become ever more popular. In 2005, Latvian University changed its enrollment of Chinese language students from every two years to each year. And the number of students admitted has kept growing. The Confucius Institute in Riga University provides a new platform for local Chinese language and culture learners. The Chinese language courses in Riga Culture School have gained more and more popularity. Recently, it successfully held the Second China Week.

Two other Latvian universities, said the Ambassador, had sent in their applications to the Volunteers Center of NOCFL about inviting Chinese language teachers over to teach in their universities.