After receiving three months of intensive Mandarin training at a language center, 20-year-old Uitumen Urjinbadam has received a Chinese government scholarship to fulfill her dream of studying in China.
"I am very happy to be able to realize my dream," said Urjinbadam, who has been studying Chinese for years prior to her time at the center.
Urjinbadam is looking forward to enrolling at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics this autumn.
"There are many Chinese companies in Mongolia," she said, adding that she hopes to contribute to her countries ties with China upon graduation.
As China-Mongolia relations expand rapidly in a wide range of areas, fluent Chinese speakers are in high demand in Mongolia, Li Wei, cultural counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Mongolia, said at an annual job fair in April for Chinese-speaking Mongolian students.
In this regard, the number of Mongolian youth choosing to learn Chinese has been increasing annually.
"Our center has been working to help Mongolian youth learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture," Dagvadorj Tsogtsoltsermaa, direct manager of Mandarin Chinese language center, told Xinhua, noting that since its establishment in 2013, the center has provided Chinese language training to more than 3,600 Mongolian students.
The Chinese government and Chinese companies operating in Mongolia offer scholarships to encourage Mongolians to study Chinese, according to Khorloo Baatarkhuu, a leading Mongolian sinologist.
He noted that there is fierce competition in Mongolia to win scholarships from the Chinese government.
According to statistics from the Chinese Embassy in Mongolia, at least 10,000 Mongolian students have studied in China in recent years, and the Chinese government provides more than 200 governmental scholarships to Mongolian students each year.
Sukhbaatar Ochirsuvd, a 23-year-old journalist and translator at the Mongolian state-owned news agency Montsame, has also received a Chinese government scholarship and will travel to China in September to pursue a master's degree in business management.
She said Mongolians who can speak Chinese have a bright future.
"China is our country's eternal neighbor," said Ochirsuvd. "So as a citizen of Mongolia, I believe I should learn Chinese language well."
