With southern China's culture and cross-regional integration presented in a visual spectacle, a gala ceremony left the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area stoked on Sunday as President Xi Jinping declared the 15th National Games open in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province.
Launched in 1959 to promote mass sports participation, China's National Games have opened a new chapter with the groundbreaking 2025 edition, being jointly held for the first time in Guangdong province and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. The 15th National Games kicked off with great fanfare, celebrating their influence in pulling the Greater Bay Area further together, not just in sports exchanges but also in terms of cultural and economic cohesion.
After overseeing the parade of athletes and a series of ceremonial rituals, Xi announced the opening of the domestic sporting gala — held once every four years with a competition program similar to that of the Olympics — to rousing cheers from the crowd of over 80,000 at Guangdong Olympic Sports Center Stadium.
Before attending the ceremony, Xi met on Sunday afternoon in Guangzhou with individuals and representatives of various sports groups, who were honored as role models of mass fitness and competitive sports promotion.
Kirsty Coventry, the new president of the International Olympic Committee and Thomas Bach, the IOC's honorary president for life, were among guests at the opening ceremony.
As the largest edition of the games, in numbers of participants and host cities, the Greater Bay Area games feature 419 medal events across 34 sports, involving over 14,000 professional athletes on its competitive program. A parallel mass sports program has also engaged more than 1 million amateurs in preliminary rounds of 166 events since February.
As an early highlight of the night, a joint delegation of athletes representing Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao marched together at the end of the athletes' parade, drawing warm applause from the crowd.
As part of an extensive display of the history and culture of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the opening ceremony presented traditional activities and art, ranging from dragon boat racing and lion dances to drum and gong performances in an intriguingly immersive fashion, enhanced by modern technology and dazzling audiovisual effects.
The lion dancers brought the crowd to its feet, taking advantage of virtual reality technology that made the performance even more spectacular, before the racing dragon boats drew "oohs" and "aahs" from spectators who, aided by augmented reality technology, felt as if the boats were being paddled into the crowd.
During the jubilant performances, iconic landmarks, such as Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, the Ruins of St. Paul's in Macao and the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, took shape as 3D background projections, showcasing unique attractions of the Greater Bay Area's past and present.
Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Party chief of Guangdong province, delivered a speech in which he extended his warm welcome to all participants.
"The National Games being held together by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will write a new chapter of the integrated development of the Greater Bay Area. We will play a generous host to present a streamlined, safe and splendid sporting extravaganza," he said.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and Macao Chief Executive Sam Hou-fai both pledged to build on the games' momentum to further facilitate sports, cultural and economic collaborations across the Greater Bay Area.
"This 15th edition not only represents an innovation of the National Games, but also accelerates Hong Kong's integration into the overall development of the country," Lee said in his speech.
Sam said the games "will help build a brighter future of the GBA as yet another example of the significance of the 'one country, two systems' policy".
As a symbolic milestone of the games, the men's road cycling race charted a 230-kilometer route linking Zhuhai, a co-host city in Guangdong, with Hong Kong and Macao on Saturday, marking the first ever cross-boundary sporting event held in the Greater Bay Area.
For the exciting finale, three renowned athletes — Hong Kong's Olympic champion fencer Edgar Cheung Ka-long, Guangdong's star sprinter Su Bingtian and Macao martial artist Li Yi — completed the final leg of the torch relay before together igniting a flame ring as the games' main cauldron.
Lu Wanqing and Wang Jing contributed to this story.
