The Examination for Spoken Chinese Competency test (abbreviated as HKC) was held in Shanghai on November 28. Foreign students studying in six Shanghai universities and expatriates working in multinational enterprises in Shanghai participated in the exam.

HKC is an examination for oral Chinese for non-Chinese speakers. It is a half an hour test that validates the communication abilities of the test taker. In a computerized test environment, test takers must finish a seven-section test by reading after a computerized voice, asking and answering questions, repeating after listening to a paragraph, describing a scenario, and interactive conversation. The test has three levels from elementary to advanced with 9 grades in total.

According to the news report, about 100,000 foreigners are studying or working in Shanghai on a regular basis. Together with Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK), it becomes the standard for testing Chinese language capabilities.