The final Kazakh round of the Eighth "Chinese Bridge" competition, a Chinese-language proficiency contest for foreign college students, concluded on Thursday in the capital city of Astana, Xinhua reported.
A senior student from the Kazakh Abai National Normal University won the first prize and got a chance to take part in the semi-final competition in China in the final with 10 contestants.
The contest was made up of three parts: a speech in Chinese, a question-and-answer quiz on Chinese culture and history, and a show of the competitors' artistic skills.
Cheng Guoping, Chinese ambassador to Kazakhstan, presented the awards to the winners and expressed the hope that more Kazakh students would know more about China by learning the Chinese language.
The Chinese language learning has become popular in the central Asian country in recent years. Currently, 10 Kazakh universities have offered Chinese courses.
The annual "Chinese Bridge" competition was initiated in 2002 with the aim of expanding exchanges and cooperation between China and the rest of the world.
The Chinese language proficiency competition has become an important platform for college students around the world to learn the Chinese language and know more about the Asian country.
Statistics show that more than 30 million people overseas are learning Chinese.
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