Following are some of the traditional sports events but have different ways to compete at the ongoing 6th Chinese Farmers' Games in Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province:

Basketball:

It is quite different from the NBA three-point shootout game during the All-Star weekend. Two players start from the base line, passing each other to get to the three-point circle. Then, one makes three-point shots and his or her partner picks up the ball and passes it back to the shooter. A men's pair makes the most shots in three minutes will be the winner and the time for a women's pair is two minutes.

Swimming:

Shooting a ball in the water is more difficult than shooting on the ground. In a 100-meter event, swimmers have to swim with a basket in which there are six balls. When they arrive at the special point, they will shoot the balls to a hoop, and then swim back to finish the race.

In another 100-meter event, four 5-kilogram objects are put in four places under the water. Swimmers must swim to the spots and then dive to get the objects. After collecting all the four, they swim to the finish line.

The swimming competition also features a special 4x100 meters torch relay. Swimmers hold a torch above the water and swim to his or her teammates.

In another 4x100 meters relay, each swimmer swims in any style with a wood basin. When he or she reaches the turning point, the fifth teammate at the pool side put certain materials in the basin. Then the swimmer swims back, pushing or pulling the full basin to the next swimmer who will unload all the materials from the basin and swim with the vacant one.

Cycling:

All the bikes for competition are the ordinary ones people ride in daily life and all the races are held on road with a minimum distance of 20 kilometers and the maximum 40 kilometers. In each race, cyclists use ropes to tie heavy bags on their backseats. The weight ranges from 30 kilograms to 65 kilograms. A cyclist will be fouled if his or her bag falls off the backseat. A cyclist will be fouled out if his or her burden is lighter than the standard.

Track and field:

There are a total of 31 events in the most traditional sport at the Farmers' Games, but only men's and women's 4x400 meters relay races are the same as those at the Olympics or athletic worlds. All the other events are farm working related or oriented.

Some athletes race with variety kinds of things, such as foodstuff bags, plastic barrels filling with water, or tyres.

Some have to cooperate to finish the race. They tie their feet together so three people run with four feet.

There are also many throwing events but the discus is replaced by plastic seedlings.

The 6th edition of the Games, the only one for farmers in the world, runs from October 26 to November 1 in southeast China's city of Quanzhou. It is the largest-ever edition attracting about 3,500 athletes from all the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China.

(CRIENGLISH.com October 30, 2008)