SIBIU, Romania, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Romania held on Saturday the regional preliminary round of the 11th "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary Students in Sibiu, with Daniel Deacu winning the Grand Prize.

"Learn Chinese, double your world" is the theme of this year's edition and 17 students were chosen from the four Confucius Institutes in Bucharest, Brasov, Cluj-Napoca and Sibiu to compete in the finals in Sibiu, a central city of the country, after local preliminaries.

After fierce competition, Daniel Deacu from Ciprian Porumbescu Art School in Suceava, northeastern Romania, won the Grand Prize of the competition and will represent Romania in the global "Chinese Bridge" competition in China.

Karina-Georgiana Visan from Gheorghe Lazar Secondary School in Bucharest took the first prize in the contest and will travel to Beijing to watch the final competition.

Deacu, who studied Chinese for four years, is also an enthusiast of traditional Chinese painting. He said that he insists on learning Chinese because of Chinese painting, and the more he studies the language, the better he understands the Chinese painting. He hoped to go to college in China, to learn more Chinese language and culture, and of course, painting.

"Besides the regular competing processes of 'Chinese keynote speech,' 'Knowledge on China' and 'Talent show,' 'Chinese national costume show' and 'Traditional Touhu game,' or throwing arrows into a distant pot, were added in the competition for the first time to add more fun and arouse more interest," Wang Jiong, Chinese director of the Confucius Institute of Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu, told Xinhua.

Caliman Petra from Stefan Barsanescu Middle School in Bucharest and Valu Kriszta from the Gheorghe Sincai Middle School in Baia Mare, northwestern Romania, won the "Best Style Award" in the costume show, while Horobeanu Georgiana-Diana from I. C. Bratianu National School in Mioceni won the prize of the "Top Shooter Award" in the Touhu game.

During the competition, all the audiences enjoyed an excellent visual feast full of Chinese elements performed by well-prepared competitors, including Chinese dances, classical music, brush painting, allegro and shadow puppetry. The whole competition was continuously full of warm applause and cheers.

Sponsored by Hanban, the competition in Romania was co-organized by Confucius Institute at Lucian Blanca University of Sibiu and the Chinese Embassy in Romania, with Stefan Firu, general inspector at School Inspectorate of Sibiu County attending the event.

Constantin Oprean, Romanian director of the Confucius Institute in Sibiu, pointed out at the event that all the participants are winners, as they have entered the world of profound Chinese culture and civilization. He also expressed his gratitude to Chinese teachers and volunteers of the Confucius Institutes who have carefully trained the contestants. He hoped that the student representing Romania to China will show high level in competition in Beijing.

"The 'Chinese Bridge' proficiency competition for foreign secondary school students has been successfully held in Romania for 10 years since 2008," said Wang, stressing that the competition not only attracts more and more Romanian outstanding middle school students to participate in, but also draws attentions of more and more people to Chinese learning in Romania. The "Chinese Bridge" has become a stage for students to demonstrate the achievements of Chinese learning, as well as a solid link for promoting the friendly exchanges between China and Romania.