(China Daily 08/09/2004 page16) - The fifth China National Games for Farmers will be held from October 18-24 in Yichun, Jiangxi Province.

This year's games are especially important for China since the Chinese Government is putting more and more attention to the development of agriculture and the well-being of the over 900 million Chinese farmers.

China is the only country in the world which hosts sports games for its farmers.

The last farmers’ games were held in Mianyang, Sichuan Province four years ago.

The Yichun games are expected to attract over 10,000 participants, including 5,000 athletes from all over China including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to compete in 14 events - track and field, shuttlecock, table tennis, swimming, Chinese wrestling, chess, bicycle-riding, wushu, dragon boating, lion dancing, kite-flying, angling, and military triathlon (shooting, grenade-throws and cross-country running).

It marks the first time that Jiangxi Province has hosted a national comprehensive sports meet. For the hosting city, Yichun has renovated 11 competition venues for the event organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, China State General Administration Bureau for Sports, China Farmers Sports Association and the Jiangxi provincial government.