Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Ho Iat-seng (left) waves the flag of the National Games of the People’s Republic of China on Monday at the closing ceremonies of the 14th National Games in Xi’an, Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, with Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam and South China’s Guangdong Province Governor Ma Xingrui looking at him. Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will jointly host the 15th National Games in 2025. Photo: AFP

The 14th National Games of China played its final note on Monday night with a shining closing ceremony in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, marking another inspiring sports success following Team China's performance in Tokyo 2020. 

Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam participated in the flag handover ceremony. 

The closing ceremony of the 14th Games of the People's Republic of China. Photo:VCG

The 14th National Games lasted for 13 days and featured 35 major events and 368 minor events, with a total of about 14,000 athletes participating. No cases of COVID-19 infection were reported throughout the whole event.

This event took over from the Tokyo Olympics and created another wave of sports fever in China. Xi'an, being the first city in Northwest China to host the event, was also positively affected in all aspects of its economy, society and city marketing.

In addition to the professional competition events, there were also mass events for sports enthusiasts, even including square dancing and tai chi.

The next National Games, scheduled in 2025, will be co-hosted by South China's Guangdong Province, and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. 

This will be the first time ever for a National Games to be co-hosted by multiple provincial-level regions, and it will also be the first time that Hong Kong and Macao have co-hosted a nationwide sports event after returning to the motherland. Observers noted it will be another significant event for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong's integration into the country's development. 

Experts pointed out that this cooperation among the three places to run the national games is another opportunity to promote the integration of Hong Kong and Macao into the national development.

Sports has always played an important role in promoting national unity and people's solidarity, Zhao Jisheng, a professor with the College of Physical Education and Sports at Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times on Monday. 

The three regions' hosting the Games together is expected to further promote the integration of Hong Kong and Macao into China's development, and also promote the common progress of sports in both SARs and the Chinese mainland.

In August, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam thanked the central government for its trust and support on behalf of the SAR, saying that the SAR government would do its best to prepare for the event. Some local sports figures believe that the significance of hosting the National Games lies in the integration into the Greater Bay Area, which is very important to raise the level of sports in Hong Kong, local media reported. 

Zhao pointed out that Hong Kong's and Macao's further integration into the mainland in terms of sports is an irreversible trend. 

"In such a further integrated sports atmosphere, it is likely that various teams from Hong Kong and Macao will converge into national sports teams in the future, including the Olympic delegation," Zhao noted.