DUSSELDORF, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Twenty students from 13 German colleges joined a Chinese proficiency competition for foreign college students on Saturday in Dusseldorf, a city in western Germany.
The competition, hosted by the Confucius Institute Headquarters in China, is the German regional final and is also a preliminary competition of the "Chinese Bridge", a contest for foreign college students on their mastery of the Chinese language, to be held in China.
The competition held at the Clara Schumann Music School was jointly undertaken by the Chinese Embassy in German and Confucius Institute at the University of Dusseldorf.
The students gave speeches in Chinese, and were tested knowledge about China. They also demonstrated their talents -- Chinese songs, Chinese instruments, Chinese calligraphy, as well as Kung Fu.
After fierce competition, Andreas Melts, from the Free University of Berlin, won the first prize and will travel to China to compete with contestants from other countries in this year's "Chinese Bridge" event, also known as Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students.
Andreas said he could not believe that he had won the first place because he had been studying Chinese for only a year and a half and had never been to China. He chose to learn Chinese as he wants to be more competitive.
According to the Education Office of the Chinese Embassy in Germany, there are 19 Confucius Institutes, 4 Confucius classrooms in middle schools in Germany. While, more than 300 primary and secondary schools have been offering Chinese courses, of which nearly 70 have Chinese as their formal credits and a high school graduation examination subject.
