Luise Maralda Senst, an 18-year-old college student from Germany, cooked and dined with a Chinese family. She also learned some words from the dialect of the Bai ethnic group. "It was so much fun," she said.
Senst said she has been learning Mandarin for three years and that she has progressed quickly because she has received help from an aunt who is Chinese. A Sinology major at her college, she said she will "definitely study in China for at least a year".
Satawat Phansankor, a 16-year-old from Thailand, said he is impressed by the unique way that Bai people drink tea with guests, who are offered three kinds in a sequence: the first is a bitter tea; the second is a sweet tea with red sugar, rushan cheese and cinnamon; and the third is a tea mixed with honey, Sichuan peppers and walnuts. "Just like life, it's bitter before it's sweet, and then slowly becomes savory," he said.
Phansankor said he was also impressed by the electronic flower auction hall at the Dounan Flower Market. "It looks like a stock exchange," he said. "I heard that over 4.5 million fresh flowers are traded here every day, and some of them will be exported to my country."
He added his dream is to become a successful businessman, so he also wanted to obtain some business knowledge in China.
Fifteen-year-old Thin Kyu Hlaing from Myanmar said she liked the Bai people's traditional clothing and their special peacock dance. She was inspired to learn Mandarin after developing an interest in Chinese soap operas. Like Phansankor, she was also impressed by the Dounan market. "There are fresh flowers, dried flowers and flower cakes at the market. I want to open a flower store here," she said.
Telesia Ruth Solomon Tanoai, a 16-year-old from New Zealand, said she is pleased that China is strongly engaged in protecting its animals and environment. "I found that everyone in this country pays great attention to environmental protection," she said. "The biodiversity here is extremely rich, and this has left a deep impression on me."
Themed "Fly High with Chinese", the competition for secondary school students and the 3rd Chinese Bridge Chinese Show for Foreign Primary School Students together give teenagers and young children from around the world a platform to share their knowledge of Chinese and promote people-to-people exchanges. Both competitions are organized by the Ministry of Education's Center for Language Education and Cooperation.
As this year also marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of China's Belt and Road Initiative, the competitions also help the contestants learn more about China's modernization, environment, rural life and ethnic cultures, organizers said.
During the final round of the teen Chinese Bridge competition held in Kunming on Oct 30, Chen Jie, vice-minister of education, said that the contest is not only a means to promote exchanges between Chinese and foreign youth, but also serves as a bridge for the cultivation of friendship and understanding between China and the world.
He said he is looking forward to enhancing the world's understanding of China and helping the nation better connect with the world through language exchange projects.
The Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition is also open to college students. Since 2002, about 1.5 million students from about 160 countries have participated in overseas preliminary contests, and about 7,000 have been invited to China to take part in the final rounds. It has become the world's most influential Chinese proficiency contest.
