North East China looks to boost sports development and national fitness through rowing
Shenyang, capital city of north east China's Liaoning Province recently held the 5th Shenyang International Open Regatta citizen rowing forum as part of the move to implement the city's strategy of national fitness and powering the city with sports.
Liu Kebin, head of Shenyang Municipal Sports Bureau notes "we will, through excellent top-level design, expanding the rowing sport, strengthening the rowing industry and shaping the rowing culture, accelerate the deep integration of sports industry and urban development, and then make rowing become a new way of national fitness, a new driving force for the building of Shenyang in health, a new fashion of social life and a new driver for economic growth.”
The most distinctive feature of this forum was that the invited speakers are not industry experts, but ordinary rowing enthusiasts.
Xia Nan from a local rowing club told the changes that rowing brings to children's growth, parent-child relations and family life, with her two children in the way of parent-child dialogue.
Liu Yue, director of the international department with Northeast Yucai School, a local high school, highlighted the importance of rowing in promoting the healthy growth and all-round development of teenagers.
Zhao Zhonghao, captain of the rowing team of Liaoning Communication University, talked about the bitterness and sweetness in the training with his classmates, which is a rare experience in his college life.
Rowing, known as the ‘flower of industrial civilization’, is highly consistent with the cultural accumulation of Shenyang.
According to Sui Qingyang, director of the youth committee of the Chinese Rowing Association and general manager of the Shenyang International Rowing Centre, the first Shenyang International Open Regatta was held in 2018, making rowing popular in Shenyang, and the second edition in 2019 attracted rowing teams from France, Japan, New Zealand, and Thailand among others, making the event an international one.
In 2020, the 3rd edition launched the first youth rowing invitational competition, laying a foundation for the development of youth rowing in Shenyang.
In 2021, through the "wisdom plus" curriculum system, more than 40,000 primary and secondary school students in Hunnan District of Shenyang got involved in the rowing sport.
In 2022, The China (Shenyang) Rowing Development Index was launched in Shenyang, exporting the experience of Shenyang in rowing development to the world.
Image: Scene of the Shenyang International Open Regatta.
