More than 8,000 middle school students participated in a preliminary contest for this year’s Top 10 Campus Writers competition at over 110 schools on Monday, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

    The number of contestants set a new record since the competition was held for the first time in 2006. The contest, jointly organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau, Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles and several local newspapers, is regarded as one of the most important writing competitions for students in Shenzhen.

    The participants of the preliminary contest were literature lovers from schools in Shenzhen. Many of them were prize winners from municipal, provincial and even national writing competitions. Some other students were editors from their school magazines and newspapers.

    The competition rules were different from the last few years. The preliminary contest selected 20 percent of the contestants for the semifinal. It was the highest ratio over the past few years. The adjustment was to encourage more students to take part in the competition.

    This year’s competition was set up at the participants’ schools in a bid to offer a more relaxed environment for the contestants.

    Students who make it into the second round of the competition will be eligible to join a writing summer camp.

    The top 100 contestants from the semifinal from the junior high school group and the senior high school group will be allowed into the final.

    The general public can read the articles written by the top 50 for each group on WeChat account: shenzhenshaonianpai and vote before September when the final top 10 campus writers will be selected for each group.

    (Zhang Qian)