Qingdao ready for games

More than 8,750 professional and 7,300 amateur athletes from across the globe will compete in 17 games in picturesque Laixi, a county-level city of Qingdao, for the World Leisure Games 2015, which runs from Sept 12 to 21.

Among the athletes, 975 are foreigners from 92 countries and regions.

This will be the largest sports event in the city since it hosted the 2008 Olympic sailing events. Qingdao is the main host for the World Leisure Games.

"We expect to bring out the charm of Qingdao, which features a pleasant living environment, to the world," said Liu Mingjun, vice-mayor of Qingdao and executive deputy director-general of the executive committee for the World Leisure Games 2015.

"As a renowned coastal resort and tourism destination, Qingdao has tremendous resources for leisure sports. Laixi has already gained successful experience in organizing leisure sports events, including mountaineering, fishing, water skiing, cycling and parasailing, in recent years."

The World Leisure Organization founded the World Leisure Games and appointed Qingdao as the host city for the games in October 2012.

Under the theme of "In Leisure, In Nature", it will host nine international contests for rock climbing, freestyle roller skating, street dance, e-sports, marathon running, dragon boat racing, martial arts, international chess and beach volleyball, as well as eight domestic contests including Gouji, a type of poker game), aerobics, swimming, equestrianism, cycling, fishing, beach soccer and Chinese chess.

Beach volleyball, aerobatics and swimming across Jiaozhou Bay will be held in downtown Qingdao; the rest of the events will be held in Jiaozhou.

The event will also include a World Leisure Summit, World Leisure Expo and Leisure Culture and Arts Festival.

A national Chinese chess competition, a martial arts test match and a dragon boat regatta were held in August to test facilities and the games' staff members and volunteers.

Major facelift

Laixi has been rapidly upgrading its infrastructure for the World Leisure Games.

Laixi Mayor Ji Jiadong said the city is the "backyard of Qingdao" and has green hills, calm waters, clean air and a variety of cultural heritages such as the Yangge folk dance and clay sculpture.

It is also home to Laixi Lake, Jiaodong Peninsula's largest freshwater lake, and Jiangshan, the region's largest inland wetlands area.

In addition to a facelift that included the planting of 8 million new trees along the Daguhe River, 10 electric trolleys shuttling between Qingdao and Laixi began service on Aug 13.

The World Leisure Games Park covers 52.5 hectares at a cost of 60 million yuan ($9.7 million). It has both competition and entertainment venues. The competition areas will be used to host beach rugby, cycling races and roller skating contests.

The World Leisure Organization was established more than 50 years ago and operates as a worldwide, nongovernmental voluntary organization, which believes that leisure is vital to enhancing human life.

The first World Leisure Games were held in Chuncheon, South Korea, from Aug 28 to Sept 5, 2010, and involved 15,000 participants from more than 50 countries.

huqing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/11/2015 page12)