Feature: Village games, big gains

by sportswriter Yue Wenwan

WUHAN, May 15 (Xinhua) -- When Hu Rui's team clinched victory in the tug-of-war finals in central China's Huangtan Town, in Hubei Province, their prize was not a medal, but something far tastier: five kilograms of soft-shelled turtles, 10 kilograms of crayfish, a bundle of fresh vegetables, and a couple tins of local green tea.

"That's what victory smells like," said Hu, a PE teacher from Yingcheng Huamao Foreign Language School, while holding up the prize on Wednesday.

Over the past two days, the small town of Huangtan transformed its Xingfu Park - or Happiness Park, in English - into a buzzing arena of grassroots sport and local pride. With 40 teams competing and thousands of villagers watching, the town's first-ever sports festival was turned into a grand carnival.

From tug-of-war showdowns to three-legged races and square dances, the event drew people of all ages. Farmer Fu Xin, usually knee-deep in spring crops, took a break from his fields to train for the 4.5-kilometer run a month ago.

"I had to represent our village with dignity," he said while catching his breath at the finish line.

Meanwhile, the tug-of-war final stole the show. Spectators packed around the enclosure, cheering loudly as teams pulled the rope with all their strength. In the end, Hu's squad of seven young PE teachers edged out a farmers' team led by 61-year-old Chen Qinming.

"We knew that we were more competitive than other villagers, but we still chose to participate in all events, because we want to promote a healthy lifestyle to more people," Hu added.

And the undeterred Chen jumped straight into his next event - a heated table tennis match against another Huamao teacher. He narrowly lost 13-15 in the deciding game, but beamed with pride.

"He's 30 years younger than me, but we seesawed back and forth for quite a while, which made me feel that I'm still young," Chen noted.

For Huangtan, this was not just fun and fitness - it was also smart economics. Nearly 3,000 spectators visited the square on the first morning, and beside the sports field, 35 local vendors set up booths, offering everything from handmade soy sauce to fresh tomatoes.

"It was nonstop," said Li Xiaoping, who helped run the Huangtan soy sauce booth. "We sold almost 80 kilograms of fermented bean sauce within the first half hour. People were drawn in by the games, and stayed for the flavor."

The town's mayor, Li Dekui, could not have been happier.

"This kind of event brings people together, and it also boosts our economy," he said, adding that Huangtan prepared to turn such sports gala into an annual tradition -- possibly expanding with dragon boat races and more community festivals.

With the booming of rural sports events, such as the Village Super League and Village Basketball Competition in China recent years, more and more small towns have weighed more on sports to achieve social governance as well as boost tourism and economy.

The sports festival in Huangtan was also the opening act of Hubei's provincial fitness campaign -- an initiative that will bring over 200 sports events to 40 towns and streets across the province this year.

The strategy is clear: use the power of grassroots sports to spark broader gains -- in public health, tourism, and local industry.

"We want to turn the flow of spectators into real economic uplift," said Yan Hanhua, director of the Hubei Provincial Social Sports Management Center.

And for towns like Huangtan, it is already working.

"It's great to see that local villagers are exercising more, talking less about mahjong and more about matches," Li said. Enditem