It was a day for handing out awards. Mo Yan received his Nobel prize for literature. And 35 foreign students in Beijing also had their Chinese compositions honored on Monday.

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They're the winners of a writing competition held by the Beijing People's Association For Friendship With Foreign Countries. More than 340 entries were collected under the theme "Me and Beijing" before the November deadline.

Qi Hua, judge of the committee and assistant professor with Beijing Normal University, said she was amazed at how comfortable the foreign students are with Chinese.

"They're doing so well that they can beat native Chinese speakers who haven't had enough professional training," Qi said.

Qi said the participants wrote 1,500 and even 2,500-Chinese-character articles displaying a profound understanding of Chinese writing techniques.

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Janiece Terrall from Beijing Broadcast and TV University won the first prize with a work called "The Spirits of Beijing's Elderly". She said that she learned her intonations from her elderly neighbors and that she likes Beijing more the longer she stays.

"I'm trying to learn Chinese well because I want to stay here for a very long time," she told China Daily.

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