October 25,YICHUN, Jiangxi(China Daily): Local farmer Wu Yanmei, in Yichun, East China's Jiangxi Province, went to the local sports stadium every day last week to watch the special track and field events of the one-week Fifth National Farmers' Games, which ended on Saturday.

The events were specially created to mimic the farm jobs she and her villagers do every day.

Unique event

First staged in 1988, the Games is the only regular sports meet especially for farmers in China.

This year, more than 2,500 people competed in 14 events.

The Games is considered one big party for the country's 786 million farmers, providing a venue for events you wouldn't see anywhere else.

Many of the sports tested typical countryside skills such as planting and fishing.

Sixty-metre rice-seedling transplanting, 100-metre tyre-rolling - events you wouldn't expect to see at a typical sports meet.

There were also regattas, badminton, angling, tug-of-war, cross-country cycling and even kiteflying.

Racers ran with loaded sacks in a 30-metre burden race, and in the 80-metre food-carrying race, runners had to carry poles loaded with food weighing 40 kilograms.

Ye Shuikun, from East China's Fujian Province, took part in one bucket-filling event where people had to run to and fro filling a larger bucket with water. "I need to carry water by hand when I water the crops at home," Ye said.

In the same event for women, Chen Xi, also from Fujian, filled the larger bucket by throwing two buckets of water into the larger one.

"I often help my mother carry buckets of pigswill," she said.

Li Wei, from Xuyi of East China's Jiangsu Province, fell over himself as he crossed the finishing line in a corn-carrying race.

"I carry corn by myself at harvest time every year, because the truck cannot drive in the field. I had thought this would be very easy for me, but I was wrong. I never expected it to be so tiring," Li said.

In Mongolian wrestling tradition, winners were awarded camels, horses, cows and sheep as well as medals.

The General Administration of Sports, the top sports authority in China, says one of the most important aims of the National Farmers Games is to "encourage the country's farmers to take up physical exercise."

The livelihood of Chinese farmers is improving, although the income gap between rural areas and cities is still very large.

Official statistics show that in the first six months of this year, rural residents' incomes increased by 10.9 per cent year-on-year, the highest growth rate of the past eight years.

"As farmers get better off, they have more time and money to engage in physical exercise," said Chen Yaobang, chairman of the China Farmers Sports Association.

Joyful participants

Lin Longqing, from Chenggu Township in Hanzhong City, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, took part in the games with his wife, son and granddaughter.

Lin, 64, came to Yichun as a coach for the provincial team. He did a lot of exercise when he was young. He trained himself for long-distance running and coached local teenagers during the slack farming season. He has also started a race-walking training class at home.

Lin's wife, Yu Chengrong, 61, came to Yichun as head of the provincial track and field team. She is also a sports lover, running in a regular cross-country race held in the county.

Lin's son, 36-year-old Lin Jie, competed in planting rice-seedlings, carrying grain and in a five-member team event to move sandbags.

Following in the footsteps of his father, Lin Jie took up sports when he was young. Every day, he runs between 3 and 5 kilometres in the fields, and runs the local cross-country race every New Year Day, taking his daughter along during her summer and winter vacations. She now also competes.

There are also more traditional events in the Games- such as lion and dragon dances, dragon boat racing and a variety of kung fu and martial arts.

This year, a 20-strong delegation from Taiwan Province was cheered on by relatives who also came along.

It is the third time the Taiwan sports delegation has come to the Chinese mainland for the Farmers' Games.

The ancient lion and dragon dances showcase the different styles of folk tradition, from the different designs of the dragons to the various dance steps.

Martial arts are still very popular in the countryside.

But the spirit of the farmers' association is being challenged. To get better results, a number of local sports authorities have sought professional athletes to take part in the Games, especially in events similar to other sports meetings.

Xinhua News Agency says ping pong is already dominated by young athletes, who, though born in farmers' homes, may never have set foot in a field.

To retain the essence of the Games, the sports administration said those "ordinary events" would gradually be removed, and only those related to farming would stay in.

The Quanzhou sports administration says it will invite overseas Chinese from Southeast Asian countries to the event, as many of the overseas Chinese living there originally came from Quanzhou.