On November 25, Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Chen Xiaodong attended the opening ceremony of "Chinese Bridge" Club (Cape Town Station) and delivered a speech.

Ambassador Chen first of all extended warm congratulations on the establishment of the Chinese Bridge Club (Cape Town Station) and thanked the South African people who care about Chinese language education and support the establishment of the Club.

Ambassador Chen spoke highly of China-South Africa relations and pointed out that state-to-state relations lie in amity between the peoples, and amity between the peoples lies in mutual understanding. People-to-people and cultural exchanges have always been a highlight of our cooperation. Since the establishment of the high-level people-to-people and cultural exchange mechanism in 2017, people-to-people and cultural exchanges have entered an all-dimensional, multi-tiered and institutionalized development stage, covering a wide range of areas. Despite the impact of COVID-19, people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and South Africa have not stopped. The hearts of our two peoples are closely connected, and our enthusiasm for cooperation remains high.

Ambassador Chen said that China is an ancient civilization with a long history and splendid culture and has made remarkable contributions to the progress of human civilization. This year marks the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Under the strong leadership of the COMMUNIST Party of China, the Chinese civilization has shown new vigor and vitality in the process of modernization, making new achievements in the Chinese civilization. The Chinese language is the carrier of Chinese civilization. It is also the "golden key" for our two peoples to enhance mutual understanding and promote exchanges and cooperation in various fields. In recent years, more and more South Africans have begun to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture, and the "Chinese fever" continues to heat up in South Africa. The "Chinese Bridge" World Chinese Language Competition has become a brand event with great influence around the world.

Ambassador Chen stressed that the successful establishment of the First Chinese Bridge Club in sub-Saharan Africa and the 11th Chinese Bridge Club in the world in Cape Town, South Africa, is a full recognition of the international Chinese language education in South Africa and a great honor for the Chinese language education community in South Africa. Ambassador Chen encouraged the "Chinese Bridge" Club (Cape Town station) to further unite and serve the members of the "Chinese Bridge" brand activity and Chinese enthusiasts in South Africa, and make greater contributions to promoting people-to-people exchanges between China and South Africa and building a closer China-South Africa and China-africa community with a shared future.

"Chinese bridge" club (Cape Town station) was established and the ceremony held by way of combination of offline online, South Africa, chairman of the national assembly affairs frodo rick, director of the center for exchanges and cooperation, China's Ministry of Education, the Chinese and foreign language speech, such as horses arrows, consul general Lin, China's ambassador to Cape Town, South Africa, on behalf of the government departments, cooperation organization representative, successive "Chinese bridge" competition player nearly hundred people present. Chinese tea Ceremony, Traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese literature and other exhibitions were also arranged at the ceremony.