Students learn Chinese calligraphy at a Confucius Institute in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. [PHOTO BY GUO MINGFANG/XINHUA]

The institute is about to reach an agreement with the Uruguay-China Chamber of Commerce "so that business owners can also begin to learn the basic elements" of Chinese culture, said Markarian.

For the second year in a row, Udelar plans to host a seminar titled "Language and cultural traditions of China" with the sponsorship of China's commerce ministry to raise awareness about Chinese culture among Uruguayans.

"The entire country and its diverse political and cultural sectors are interested in deepening our ties" with China, said Markarian.

Cheung-Koon Yim, who directs Uruguay's Confucius Institute, said the idea is to "encourage and develop Uruguayan society's capacity to understand traditional Chinese culture by learning its language."

An architect by profession, Yim, in his 80s, has been living in the Latin American country since 1953.

"The institute is going to have a much wider reach and many more courses," Yim said.

And he plans to introduce new classes such as cooking, calligraphy and painting, as well as to launch exhibitions in a bid to help promote different facets of Chinese culture.

Recently, the institute hosted the Chinese Bridge competition, an annual international contest to reward non-Chinese speaking students according to their Chinese proficiency.

It was the third time that the contest has been held in Uruguay for secondary-school students. This year two of them won a trip to China.