According to the statistics of the Ministry of Education of China, there were 492,000 foreign students studying in China in 2018. Among them there were 50,000 from South Korea which is the highest in the world; the second were from Thailand, Pakistan, India, and the U.S., each country had between 20,000 and 30,000 students studying in China. Among these foreign students, there were 60,304 people who had received scholarships from the Chinese government, accounting for 12.81 percent. The number of foreign students studying for a college degree was 258,122 or 52.44 percent and rest of them were there for training programs. These foreign students were studying at 1,004 colleges and universities in 31 provinces and autonomous regions across China, an increase of 3,013 people over 2017, with an annual growth rate of 0.62 percent. The regions include 88,786 people in Beijing, 61,400 in Shanghai, 45,778 in Jiangsu, 38,190 in Zhejiang, and 27,879 in Liaoning.
Source: Central News Agency, April 13, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201904130072.aspx