The British leg of the eighth "Chinese Bridge" world university students' Chinese language competition has been held in London. The theme of this year's competition is "Fun with Chinese, hope for Success".

14 competitors from seven universities including Nottingham University and the London School of Economics took part in the competition.

Competitors completed three stages - a speech on a self-selected topic, a cultural knowledge quiz and the talent competition.

For the talent competition, the students demonstrated their Chinese handwriting, recited Chinese poems, and performed other Chinese-themed skills.

A competitor said, "I'm learning Chinese because I have many Chinese schoolmates. I think they are very interesting and I always go to the cinema with them. But sometimes I don't understand what they are talking about. So this has inspired me to learn the Chinese language."

Another said, "I used to live in Guangdong province in China. I'm an English teacher there. Learning Chinese made my life more convenient."

The 8th Chinese Bridge Competition is divided into a preliminary stage, the semi-finals and the finals. The preliminaries will be held in countries around the world, while the other two will be staged in China.

(CCTV March 16, 2009)