FUZHOU — The first National Youth Games opened in South China’s Fuzhou city here on the night of Oct 18.

Vice-Premier Liu Yandong declared the opening of the games in the Haixia Olympic Sports Center in the capital city of China’s Fujian province. The games will run through to Oct 27.

The games will see around 7900 athletes from 55 delegations across the nation competing in 305 events of 26 sports, including martial art. The parade also included athletes from Hong Kong and Macao, the two special administrative regions of China.

It is the biggest multi-sport games ever held in Fuzhou, a famous historical and cultural city.

The idea of the National Youth Games sprang from the Olympic Youth Games, which had its first edition held in Singapore in 2010. In order to comply with the development of the International Olympic Committee, China changed its City Games to the National Youth Games in 2013.

The Chinese City Games was inaugurated in 1988 in Ji’nan, the capital city of Shandong province, and then had been held in Hebei’s Tangshan, Jiangsu’s Nanjing, Shannxi’s Xi’an, and so on. The last City Games was the 7th edition in Jiangxi’s Nanchang in 2011.

Like the Youth Olympic Games, the National Youth Games weighs education as important as competition.

Young athletes are encouraged to learn from each other and make friends as well as gain experiences for international competition.

Competition had begun before the games’ official opening. The Shanghai Jing’an team won the men’s U18 soccer gold medal, which was the first gold of the games. Diving and modern pentathlon have also concluded.

The approaching typhoon Koppu is expected to batter China’s southeastern regions and will bring gales to coastal regions of Fujian province from night of Oct 18. The organizing committee has made full preparation and schedule of some events was changed.

Apart from Fuzhou, nine other cities of Fujian province will play host to the games’ tournaments. Forty-three stadiums and other facilities have been built or refurbished for the games and 24 of them are located in the capital city.