Urdu is the language of poetry, say Chinese students, according to Gwadar Pro. “The artistic talent of the Pakistani people goes hand in hand with the wonderful Urdu language. Many excellent Pakistani films and music have brought Urdu to the world cultural stage. Since learning Urdu, we all recognize it as a language of poetry,” said Yang Yue (Musarrat), a Urdu major student of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), who won the prize of Chinese & Urdu Essay Writing Competitions. Introduced by Suleman Mahsud, Education Attache of the Pakistani embassy in China, the competitions were organized by the Embassy of Pakistan and sponsored by Silk Road Cities Alliance to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan. The award ceremony to honour the winners was held this Monday (Oct 25th). The Urdu essay competition was among Chinese students majoring in Urdu in various universities of China while the Chinese essay competition was among Pakistani students studying in Chinese universities. Ahmed Farooq, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Pakistan, presented the certificates and monetary awards to the winners and certificates to all participants. The students expressed their happiness and appreciation on the competition and stated that the activity helped enhance their understanding of each other’s languages, cultures and history which will be beneficial in fostering the long term friendship between the youth of the two countries. “In recent years, more Pakistani youth are learning Chinese, but few Chinese students have access to Urdu. Therefore, I think it is very meaningful for BFSU to set up this language major. Our first sentence at the beginning of school were ‘long live China-Pakistan friendship’. We also often perform and recite Urdu poetry, which Pakistanis actually love. Now, more and more Chinese are willing to learn Urdu because of the growing cultural influence of Pakistan and the growing friendship between China and Pakistan.” Yang said. Farooq said in the exclusive interview that the event is about new generation, finding the spark in them and encouraging them to develop it. So apart from establishing the people-to-people contacts, the event is also creating a bond of friendship in the younger generation and eagerness and inspiration among Pakistanis to learn Chinese and among Chinese to learn Urdu. Similarly, Pakistani students also expressed great interest in the Chinese language, which is an important channel to learn about Chinese culture.