BEIJING, Dec. 18 -- The Chinese Xiangqi (Chinese chess) Association has started their overseas promotion campaign of the Chinese traditional intellectual game.

A promotional event themed "Xiangqi-Chinese wisdom at fingertips" was held at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday, according to CXA on Thursday.

"This would be the first stop of our international tour promoting the game," said Guo Liping, deputy general secretary of CXA.

The association also invited U.N. officals to the event, in which Xie Jun, former world champion on chess, gave a lecture comparing Xiangqi to chess.

Guo hoped that their promotional activities can arouse more people's interest in Xiangqi, which is similar to chess.

"Xiangqi is very popular in China and some Asian countries," she said, "I hope, through our promotional activities, more people in the world will know the game and learn to enjoy it, which embodies the heritage of Chinese culture and wisdom."

CXA's statistics shows that about hundreds of million people are playing Xiangqi in the world and 26 countries and regions have Xiangqi associations.