US students present Chinese opera, poetry to qualify for tough contest

Chinese Bridge has drawn nearly 1 million contestants in the past decade as the largest Chinese-language competition for foreign students in China.

The test is not of language skills alone but also of the students' understanding of Chinese culture.

The finals for this year's contest, the 16th since it started in 2002, will take place in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, in July. Many preliminaries have already been held.