HONG KONG, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's gold medal haul saw about one third of the 36 titles on offer go under its name at the East Asian Games here on Sunday.

    With just second day into the nine-day games, hosts Hong Kong of China already doubled their total medals from last time in Macao, China four years ago as Chinese Taipei clinched their first title here.

    Chinese swimming team, spearheaded by Beijing Olympic champion Liu Zige, evenly split the eight swimming titles with Japan in the capacity Kowloon Park Swimming Pool.

    Liu outpaced teammate and long time rival Jiao Liuyang to finish in two minutes 4.65 seconds in her speciality 200 meters butterfly but the time was far out of her own best time of 2:01.81,created in October's National Games in Shandong province.

    "I was happy with the result. I was exhausted after so many competitions this year," said Liu after setting a new games record. The other seven events all saw new games record born tonight.

    Another Olympic champion Guo Wenjun, however, was stunned in the women's 10m air pistol by South Korean Lee Ho Lim, who won in a games record of 485.9 points.

    The heated atmosphere was also seen in the Queen Elizabeth stadium where table tennis giant China secured the men's title with a 3-1 victory over Japan but lost the women's gold to Hong Kong.

    In the rugby sevens, there was, too, good news for China as the women's team won the championship and Japan took the men's victory. Rugby sevens, admitted into the East Asian Games for the first time, has been given more attention after being recognised as an Olympic sport and will make its debut in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

    China became the biggest winner in the dance sport, bagging six gold medals, followed by Japan with five.

    It was a harvest day for Hong Kong which reaped four gold medals to bring its total medals to 22, including six gold, six silver and 10 bronze. Hong Kong brought home a total of 11 medals with just one gold four years ago.

    Besides its table tennis victory, Hong Kong had two one-two finishes in squash singles matches and a title from the men's singles 9-ball pool event.

    Chinese Taipei collected its first gold here in the men's 54kgcategory in taekwondo through teenager Hsu Chia Lin with an overtime win while Macao pulled off two artistic cycling titles.

    China led the nine-team standings with 16 gold, 11 silver and seven bronze, following by Japan (10, 11, 14). South Korea are third (6, 6, 10).

    There are 30 gold medals on offer Monday.