BELGRADE - Serbian university students on Saturday competed in Chinese language proficiency at a preliminary contest in Belgrade's Megatrend University.

At the preliminary competition, Serbian students Veljko Savic and Leonora Ristic won in the advanced and basic proficiency categories, respectively. Savic will represent his country to compete against peers around the world in the Chinese Bridge competition to be held later this year.

Savic told Xinhua that he started learning the Chinese language four and a half years ago while he was still in high school. After visiting China, he decided to enroll in the Chinese language at the Faculty of Philology of Belgrade University.

"I feel that by winning this competition, I got the chance to improve my confidence and motivation and advance my further progress in learning the Chinese language... It's great that the friendship between our two countries has been rapidly developing in recent years, and this will help our people to get to know the Chinese language and culture, and it will help the Chinese to learn Serbian and get to know our beautiful country," Savic said.

Chinese teacher Chen Hui, who works at the Confucius Institute of the University of Novi Sad, recalled that the Chinese Bridge competition in Serbia has been organized since 2018, drawing an increasing number of students to learn Chinese. She said she hoped more Serbian people can learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture.

In a statement to Xinhua, Chang Bo, an official from the Chinese embassy in Serbia, praised the performance of the students, pledging that the embassy will continue to promote Chinese language learning among Serbian students as well as more exchanges between China and Serbia.