Qualifying contests of Chinese proficiency competition held in Portugal

The preliminary contest in Portugal of the first Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign High School Students was held in the northwestern Portuguese city of Braga on Saturday and 15-year-old Anna Rita Tavares won the contest. The Competition known as "Chinese Bridge" was co-sponsored by the Chinese embassy to Portugal and the Confucius Institute of Minho University. 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 competitors' artistic skills. Anna Luisa Bernardino from Coimbra, who has learned Chinese for about one year, performed Taiji and Chinese calligraphy. She said she was fascinated with Chinese culture and heeded news about China, adding that one of her biggest wishes was to visit China. Bernardino, winning the second place, is... [read full story]