The first-ever UNESCO award named after a Chinese figure, the Confucius Literacy Prize, debuted this September in Qufu, Confucius' hometown in eastern China's Shandong province.

    The prize, which was approved at a UNESCO Executive Board conference last year in Paris, aims to award government bodies, non-government organizations and individuals for outstanding contributions in the area of universal education.

    The Shandong provincial government and the municipal government of Jining will offer 150,000 US dollars annually for the prize, which was initiated by Chinese experts in 2001.

    Confucius, who is revered in China as a legendary philosopher, educator and politician in olden times, established Confucianism and did much to spread his theories that are deemed a mainstay of Chinese traditional culture.