VELIKO TURNOVO, Bulgaria, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The Bulgarian leg of the 17th "Chinese Bridge" -- Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students, was held here Saturday. Seventeen-year-old Raya Popova from the Vasil Levski secondary school in Ruse emerged as the champion and she will proceed to the final round in China. There are 12 contestants from five secondary schools demonstrated their language skills at the competition, which was co-organized by the Chinese Embassy in Bulgaria, the Confucius Institute at the University of Veliko Turnovo and the Confucius Institute in Sofia. Popova told Xinhua that she has been studying Chinese for almost three years and it was her third time partaking in the "Chinese Bridge" contest. "I have never been to China and I dreamed of going there," she said excitedly. Wang Min, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Bulgaria said that the "Chinese Bridge" competition was an influential international event. Likening it to an "Olympics" for Chinese language learners around the world, she said, hundreds of millions of people worldwide tuned in to watch the competition each year. It also functions as an important platform to promote exchanges and cooperation among Chinese language learners from different countries, Wang noted. Neyko Genchev, deputy mayor of Veliko Turnovo, a city located in northern Bulgaria, has described the "Chinese Bridge" as "a bridge of trust." Meanwhile, associate professor Anna Ivanova of the University of Veliko Turnovo (UVT) emphasized that Chinese language carried a profound spiritual tradition and a wealth of wisdom. Therefore, learning Chinese language would remain a top priority at UVT, the vice-rector of UVT added. 

（Editor:Liao Yifan）