Riga, April 25, (Xinhua) -- The 15th "Chinese Bridge" competition, a contest for foreign students on their Chinese proficiency, concluded Tuesday at the University of Latvia with a record number of contestants.
With 68 contestants, the competition was divided into three groups -- adult group, secondary school group and elementary school group.
The secondary school group attracted the most with 32 contestants, followed by the elementary group with 19 participators and the adult 17.
It shows that more and more people started to learn Chinese at a younger age.
Professor Peteris Pildegovics and Professor Shang Quanyu, the Latvian and Chinese Directors of the Confucius Institute at University of Latvia, mentioned in their speeches that the increasing number of young people and children taking part in the competition was the biggest achievement of this year's "Chinese Bridge" competition.
They said that the Confucius Institute at the University of Latvia will continue its efforts to promote Latvian's Chinese teaching.
Chinese language teaching has made remarkable progress in Latvia since the Chinese language teaching center in the Baltic region was established.
The holding of the 15th "Chinese Bridge" competition has pushed the Chinese language promotion in Latvia to a new level.
Some of the winners will later be representing Latvia at the 2018 "Chinese Bridge" Universities and Middle Schools Students Chinese Competition, where they will meet excellent Chinese language learners from all over the world and compete for a chance to obtain 2017-2018 Chinese Government Scholarships.
