Thirty-five teachers and other staff from educational technology centers from six western provinces and regions in China gathered in Shanghai on Wednesday to launch a training program for English teachers.

The program is the second round of a project initiated by China’s National Center Educational Technology and EF Education First last year to train at least 3,000 English teachers in western rural areas in China in three years.

The first round began in autumn last year and ended in August this year, with 1,000 rural teachers from Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region having applied for a six-month online training session. Among them, 100 were selected to take part in an offline training session and 10 won the opportunity to have a 10-day training and cultural tour in the UK in August.