China's defense ministry Thursday opened its first peacekeeping training center in suburban Beijing.

The 16,000-square-meter facility, which cost 200 million yuan ($29 million), would also serve as a venue for international exchanges in peacekeeping, including international conferences and training peacekeepers for other countries, the ministry said.

With 20 classrooms including simulation rooms for shooting and driving, the center offers professional courses on peacekeeping missions as well as English.

It also offers training facilities for peacekeeping skills, including simulated UN peacekeeping camps and de-mining training grounds, as well as swimming and driving venues.

Since 1990, the People's Liberation Army has dispatched more than 12,000 peacekeepers on 18 UN missions abroad. These soldiers were involved in road building, material transportation, medical treatment and de-mining.

Currently, 1,949 Chinese peacekeepers are on missions in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2009)