CAIRO, May 17 (Xinhua) -- The 24th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese proficiency competition for Egyptian university students concluded Saturday in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
The competition, hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Egypt and organized by the Cairo-based Chinese Bridge Club, consisted of three parts: a keynote speech, a knowledge quiz, and a talent show.
Twelve finalists advanced from a pool of 30 contestants representing 24 Egyptian universities in the preliminary rounds. The participants demonstrated strong proficiency in the Chinese language and extensive understanding of China's national conditions.
Two students from Cairo University, Ola Sherief and Youssef Ehab, won the grand prize and the first prize respectively.
The grand prizer Sherief, a student majoring in Chinese translation, said that she likes to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture through a variety of Chinese film and television works and social media platforms in her spare time.
"I hope to use Chinese as a bridge to contribute to the mutual understanding and cultural exchanges between Chinese and Egyptian youth," Sherief told Xinhua.
"We welcome more Egyptian youth to visit China and contribute to promoting cultural exchanges and people-to-people exchanges between China and Egypt, promoting mutual learning and mutual benefit among the world's diverse civilizations, and building a community with a shared future for mankind," Liu Jianqing, deputy director-general of China's Center for Language Education and Cooperation, said at the award ceremony.
Egypt has opened 32 Chinese majors across 30 universities, and 21 public middle schools have introduced Chinese as an elective subject for a second foreign language.
