HOHHOT, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The four-day 2014 Chinese National Wrestling Championships kicked off Saturday in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
A total of 394 players in 41 teams from Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Hebei and China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as well as other cities or regions participated in the wrestling championships, which includes 10 categories for men's competition and eight categories for women's.
"The championships were organized in order to better develop traditional Chinese sports," said Zhou Jinqiang, an official from China's sports general administration.
Dating back to Zhou Dynasty 3000 years ago, Chinese wrestling was a well received sport in China. However, its popularity declined in the past two decades as China shift attention to freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling which are on the Olympic Games program.
Chinese wrestling had been the official sport of China's National Games from 1959 until it was removed in 1994.
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