Pupils get to talk the talk with Chinese trip

Four second-level students will be walking the Great Wall and speaking the native tongue in China over the next fortnight.

They are among 1,000 students travelling for a competition in Yunnan where their skills in Mandarin will be tested at the World Chinese Bridge Contest.

Although the language is not offered as a subject in state exams, it is one of the first for which a curriculum has been designed for short courses in the new junior cycle programme.