SUVA, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The 18th "Chinese Bridge" Fiji regional finals, an annual Chinese proficiency competition for foreign college students, was held successfully in the Fijian capital of Suva on Monday, with the participation of 12 players from the University of the South Pacific (USP) and the Fiji National University.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the competition, Mrs. Lu Qi, wife of Chinese Ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo, expressed her hope that the Fijian students could seize opportunity to learn Chinese, become the bridge for culture exchange between China and Fiji.

Akanisi Kedrayate, dean of the faculty of arts, law and education of USP, spoke highly of the competition and affirmed the outstanding contribution of the USP's Confucius Institute in Chinese teaching and cultural promotion.

"With the development of bilateral relationship between China and Fiji, we have witnessed a sharp rise of the number of people who want to learn Chinese in Fiji and the South Pacific region. The USP's Confucius Institute has contributed a lot in Chinese language teaching, culture activity organizing and local community serving, which undoubtedly brings new vigor to the cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries," Akanisi Kedrayate said.

Yang Hui, Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at the USP (CI-USP ), told Xinhua that this is a very useful competition and will encourage more students in this region to study Chinese language.

"Language is an important tool for promoting mutual-understanding and enhancing friendship. The Confucius Institute is a very important platform, and we will do what we can to make good use of this platform to help enhance the cultural and educational exchanges between China and Fiji," she said.

Theme of this year's competition is "One World, One Family", which means to treat people all over the world as a family and live in peace. After fierce competition, which includes three parts of Q&As, speech with the theme of "One World, One Family" and Chinese talent show, Natasha Chan, 18, won the first prize and Tania Wichham, 23, won the second prize. The two female students will fly to China to take part in the final competition.

According to Yang Hui, with the support of the Chinese Embassy here, CI-USP has been organizing "Chinese Bridge" regional finals competitions in Fiji, and sent more than 12 winners to China to participate in the final competitions. All the first prize winners had also got the scholarship and studied in China.

CI-USP is jointly established by Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and the University of the South Pacific. The Chinese course covers 12 island countries in the South Pacific region. So far, CI-USP has hosted six "Chinese Bridge" competitions.