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World Taijiquan and Health Conference Closes in Sanya
World Taijiquan and Health Conference Closes in Sanya
The inaugural World Taijiquan and Health Conference (WTHC) closed on Monday evening after a colorful ceremony in China's southern most and only tropical coastal city Sanya, in south China's island province Hainan.
As a branch of the traditional Chinese martial arts Wushu, time-honored Taijiquan is known in some parts of the world as "shadow boxing".
The six-day Conference, the first of its kind for the traditional Chinese sport of Taijiquan, featured a unique schedule which combines competitions with demonstrations, lectures and meetings.
The WTHC jointly sponsored by the Wushu Administrative Center of the State Sports General Administration of China, the Chinese Wushu Association and the Sanya municipal government, attracted a total of 3,700 participants from 20 countries and regions.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and Chinese Vice-premier Li Lanqing congratulated the Conference with letters to the organizers.
Listed on the event's schedule are exchange competitions for traditional Taijiquan, demonstrations by teams and individual practitioners in various Taijiquan schools. The executive committee and sub-commissions of the IWF and the Asian Wushu Federation held several meetings on such subjects as details on the world Wushu championships' first ever doping control, membership admission by IWF's Traditional Wushu Commission as wellas the staging of the first Asian junior Wushu championships, etc.
Wushu ranking training sessions and tests were arranged during the Conference, with 90 percent of the 400 trainees awarded with certificates clarifying their rankings.
Hosts China had the largest field of some 2,900 participants for the WYHC, including 194 from the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions (SARs) and Chinese Taipei. Japan was the biggest foreign team, with some 370 competitors and officials.
The closing ceremony featured awarding of medal winners for the exchange contest for Taijiquan of various schools, Taijiquan with long and short apparatus and collective Taijiquan performance with and without apparatus.
The awarding ceremony was followed by Taijiquan performance, folk song and dance and a 30-minute firework display.
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