Sports a popular choice for Chinese to spend weekend

What activities do many Chinese choose over the weekend?

Nowadays, they are not contented to just "have a rest" -- being couch potatoes or spending hours around dinner table. Instead, more people choose to do dynamic activities, for instance, hiking, running or rowing.

On a cloudy Saturday, over 3,500 hiking fans marched through the 20km Nanshiyang canyon in west outskirts of Beijing.

It is the second stop of the Beijing international hiking festival and there will be two more events in September and October.

"I entered the family category so I can exercise with my kid. It is good," said Liu who joined the event with his 5-year-old daughter.

On the same day, a county in southern Hunan province organized the trendy "Color Run" where over 2,000 young people ran through showers of colorful powders.

The event mixes sport and entertainment as runners throw colored powder at each other and earns huge popularity in China. Beijing already held a Color Run on June 20 and another one will kick off in Shenyang in north China in July.

In hot summer, aquatic sport is always a good choice as a dragon boat race attracted 500 participants, both professional and amateur, in Hubei province.

As a traditional Chinese sport, dragon boat race is not just held around Duanwu Festival, a day to mark a great Chinese poet Qu Yuan from the Warring States.

"I started the sport not long ago but I love the atmosphere in the race," said the 69-year-old Song Yuanqing who came from Hanyuan county in Sichuan province.

Song was among the Sichuan earthquake victims who received financial aid from Hubei province after his hometown was affected by Ya'an earthquake in 2013.

"I came here also as a thank-you to Hubei people," he said. Endi