ADDIS ABABA, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Fantahun Tsegaye, a university student in Asela town of Ethiopia, was one of the 15 finalists of the 2018 Chinese language proficiency competition, dubbed "Chinese Bridge" at the Addis Ababa University in the capital of the East African country.

Sponsored by the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia, the 17th Chinese Bridge-Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students was organized on Wednesday by the Confucius Institute under the theme, "One World, One Family," attracting students from different universities in different parts of the East African country.

Fantahun, who emerged outstanding winner of the competition with participation in Chinese speech, general knowledge question and answer, and Chinese martial art, said more exchanges of such kind should continue to further enhance the people to people relations between the two countries.

He told Xinhua, particularly, that he is very happy about his achievements and that he is keen to learn more about the language and other elements of the Chinese culture.

"I would like to thank my Chinese teachers who helped me achieve this result," Fantahun said. "I started learning the Chinese language just a year ago, but the martial art since five years back, and I had gone to China and was trained in the martial art for three months."

In the competition, Fantahun presented three styles of the martial art: broad sword, short stretch, and tiger style. "I am very happy that I have finished the contest successfully," he said.

Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia Tan Jian said the bridge of language brings the two ancient countries separated by oceans closer, and connect their peoples.

It also serves as a bond to further cement friendship between the two countries, while helping the two peoples understand each other, noted the ambassador.

"With the overall advancement of China-Ethiopia comprehensive strategic partnership, the exchanges between China and Ethiopia have been growing," he said, adding "Learning and using the Chinese language has become an important tool for the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries."

Attending the competition, Dr. Yohannes Debru, a scholar at the Addis Ababa University, said provision of the Chinese language learning in different universities of the country provides good opportunities for Ethiopian students, particularly for those who will pursue further studies in China.

He has also hailed the role the Chinese language learning plays in further cementing the overall relations and partnership between the two countries and their peoples.

Yohannes, who had also study experience in China some years back, told Xinhua that the Chinese Bridge competition is an important annual event that services as a bridge and helps further strengthening of ties between the two countries.

"This is an annual event which has been taking place over the last three years," Yohannes said.

"These are students who studied Chinese language in different universities in Ethiopia; and these are students who have got the good opportunity to study Chinese in their country," said the scholar. "And this (the competition) is very good event; and the students have performed very nice, their Chinese is incredibly nice."

Outstanding winners from different parts of the world will represent their respective countries and participate in the annual World College Chinese Competition held in China.