Rock climbing was originated in 1950s in Europe. With a fairly short history in China though, the sport has experienced a stage of rapid development during the past two decades. It has become one of the most popular sports in the world's most populous country, said Chen Jianjun, an official in charge of rock climbing in the Mountaineering Sports Administrative Center (MSAC) of the SGAS.

Some 200 outdoor sports clubs have registered to the Chinese Mountaineering Association (CMA) and its branch organizations, Chen said. More and more Chinese youths are devoting themselves to indoor and outdoor rock climbing.

But as studies by experts had showed that rock climbing on natural cliffs might cause deterioration of environmental situation as plantation is damaged if not well protected. As a result, climbing on artificial rock surface is inaugurated in 1980s.

Due to fairly low economic development, rock climbing had been held mainly on natural rock surfaces in China. The situation is now changing with more and more activities on artificial rock surfaces, Chen said.

The SGAS is planning to work out a set of rules governing the administration of the rock climbing sites, both on natural and artificial rock surfaces. Among the stipulations are the ones concerning the eligibility of institutions and safety for designing and manufacturing artificial rock surfaces, climbing gears and management of climbing sites.

"Compared with the countries where this sport has had a long history, China is still lag behind in terms of standard and development in general. We are some 30 years behind the pioneering Europeans," said Li Zhixin, director of the MSAC and executive vice-president of the CMA.

"But we are not far from the world's top standard," said Li, who has been one of China's top mountain climbers with such achievements as his success on the world's highest peak, 8848- meter Mt. Qomolangma and scaling of the highest peaks of the world 's all continents.

"The development of rock climbing in China had been hampered by the short history and the country's overall economic standard," admitted Li, who is also the executive vice-president of the CMA.

"We are sending more climbers to international competitions and inviting more overseas teams and climbers to our country so that we could learn more about the sport," Li said.

"I'm fully confident that China could soon be ranked among the world's best in the sport," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2002)