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Ninety thousand people walk 30 kms in Dalian
By Zhu Chengpei and Zhang Xiaomin (China Daily Dalian Bureau)
Updated: 2009-05-26 10:52

Over 90,000 people walked for 30 kms along the coastal Binhai Road last weekend as a part of the 7th Dalian International Walking Festival.

More than 600 local companies, schools and other institutions' teams made over 60 percent of the 90,000 registered participants. The organizers said about 1,000 people from other countries like Japan, South Korea, Holland and Russia joined the two-day walking activity.

Gonzalo Andrade, an American who is teaching English in Dalian, told China Daily that he always attends such kind of activities in his hometown. "It's very common in big cities of America, hosting marathons and walkathons," he said.

Since the walking festival was launched in 2003, many associations and organizations promoted walking activities in the port city of northeast China's Liaoning province.

Sixty-year-old Wang Yongjiu, who has walked for 38 days from Dalian to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is a founder of such a club. "Within one year's time, the club has attracted nearly 1,000 members. We have walked across many other cities near Dalian. Some of us even attended the walking festivals in Tibet and South Korea," Wang told China Daily.

"Dalian has an advantageous environment to promote the activities. In deed, walking along the scenery Binhai Road has become a habit of many citizens," said Wang.