On May 27, the Preliminary Round of the 15th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for South African College Students was successfully held in Johannesburg. Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy Counsellor Wang Xiaolin attends the contest and delivered remarks. Over 100 audiences watched the contest.

Counsellor Wang hailed China-South Africa cooperation on education and pointed out that SA now boasts of the most Confucius institutes and classes in the continent. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese has been officially introduced into local public schools as a non-official language. With the implementation of FOCAC Joburg Summit outcomes, it is foreseeable that the increasing exchanges and cooperation in various fields including politics, trade, culture, education and sci-tech between both sides will bring more opportunities to the younger generations. She encouraged the contestants not only show proficiency in China, but also share their happiness and gains during the learning of Chinese which will bring other young people along on the bridge to pleasure, friendship and success by learning Chinese.

25 contestants from five Confucius Institutes in South Africa participated in three rounds of competition. Their wonderful performances have won the warm applauds of the audiences.

Chinese Bridge is a well-know international Chinese language proficiency competition. So far, the annual competition has attracted nearly 600,000 students worldwide.

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