Over 1,000 people take part in yoga event in China

Over a thousand people took part in a yoga event in eastern China today as a prelude to the third International Day of Yoga celebrations to be held next month.
A grand curtain raiser event to launch the celebration of IDY in Wuyi in China's Zhejiang province was jointly organised by Consulate General of India (CGI), Shanghai along with People's Government of Wuyi County, a Consulate press release said.
The event was launched at the scenic Wuyi Big Red Rock Hot springs area and nearly 1,000 yoga lovers from Wuyi participated in the yoga celebrations, it said.
Mayor of Wuyi Zhang Xusheng, in his inaugural address at IDY launch, said just like Buddhism had bound two great Indian and Chinese civilisations together, yoga also had the potential to promote values of harmony and peace between India and China.

He said just as tourism was a calling card for Wuyi, yoga would become the new name card for this beautiful county of Wuyi.
The Consulate had arranged a Chinese-speaking Indian yoga teacher who conducted the yoga session to the big gathering based on the common yoga protocol sent by the department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH).

The event was extremely well received by a large number of yoga followers in Wuyi, it said.
The Consulate is organising IDY celebrations from June 17-25 which will be held in 10 cities and will bring together 15,000 yoga lovers closer to India - promoting healthy and harmonious lifestyles.

The grand finale will be held on June 25, 2017 in Wuxi at the foothills of the scenic Lingshan Temple, where nearly 10,000 yoga lovers are expected to participate in a record- setting event in mainland China.
The United Nations General Assembly had made a declaration in December 2014 to observe June 21 as IDY.