Children practice wushu during a sports-themed summer camp in July in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. Photo: Xinhua

 With the passionate atmosphere of the Tokyo Olympics and the upcoming Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing, China celebrated its 13th national fitness day on Sunday, a tradition to call on citizens to engage in fitness activities as part of the country's campaign to promote health.

The national fitness day is a tradition that was started in 2008 when China hosted the Summer Olympics.  

The theme of this year's activities centers around the Olympics as the day coincides with the final day of Tokyo Olympic Games. China itself will also play host to the 2022 Winter Olympics, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Across the nation, a sports craze has seized people of various age groups.

The Chinese government issued an action plan for 2019-2030 in July to implement the country's Healthy China initiative and promote universal health.

In the plan, people are advised to engage in 30 minutes of fitness activities three times a week or more, or a similar amount of exercise load. It says a person needs to walk for 6,000 to 10,000 steps every day.

Could Kungfu enter Olympics?

Ahead of the national fitness day of China, August 7 marks the fourth World Wushu-Kungfu Day. 

This year, the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), the world Wushu governing body, said that the festival belongs to the global wushu community and the theme of 2021 World Wushu-Kungfu Day presents "Wushu: Health & Future." It also encouraged online participation all over the world, Xinhua reported Saturday.

World Wushu-Kungfu Day, a global celebration of wushu-kungfu, is celebrated each year on the first Saturday on or following August 8.

Calls for including Wushu into the Olympics have long existed and the discussion arose during the Tokyo Olympics on the internet.

"Japan's judo, karate, and Korea's taekwondo have all entered the summer Olympics, Wushu should as well," a Chinese Weibo user said.

In Tokyo, Japan earned nine gold medals in judo competitions, which has 12 in total.

The Olympics have been promoting new sports, such as skateboarding, surfing, and climbing, and break dancing will be added to the Paris 2024 game roster. 

Nowadays, there are about 120 million participants in Wushu around the world. Wushu has also basically met the standard of the International Olympic Committee to become an official event of the summer Olympics, the China News Service reported.

In January 2020, Wushu, including taijiquan, or Taichi, which was listed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in December 2020, became official events in the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympic Games. 

A primary school student practices ping pong during a summer holiday training course in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei Province on July 30. Photo: Xinhua

Children roller skate during an activity in Jize county, North China's Hebei Province to celebrate national fitness day on Saturday. Photo: IC

Performers show water skiing stunts on Shahu lake of Shizuishan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on July 31 in order to promote the attractiveness of water sports. Photo: Xinhua

People strike yoga poses at a top Bailiang Mountain in Deqing county, East China's Zhejiang Province on Sunday morning to mark national fitness day. Photo: IC

 Global Times