CHENGDU, China, June 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The 8th World Kungfu Championships was held from June 14-18 at the Chinese city of Emeishan. Under a central theme of "Sacred MT. EMEI Welcomes the World", the 5-day event was sponsored by the International Wushu Federation and Chinese Wushu Association; organized by the Bureau of Sports of Sichuan Province and the Leshan Municipal People's Government; and supported by entities such as the Leshan Municipal Bureau of Sports. The scale of this edition was the biggest in the history of the event, which has drawn participation from more than 300 teams and 5,200 wushu practitioners from 48 nations and regions such as Russia, Brazil, the United States, New Zealand and India.

The World Kungfu Championships is held biennially and is currently the largest, most prominent and most influential large-scale sports event within the global wushu sphere. The 8th edition was comprised of three major categories, namely individual event, sparring event and team event, of which the individual events were further sub-divided into traditional boxing and traditional weapons categories. Tai Chi, Wing Chun, Emei, Qingcheng, Wudang, Shaolin and other schools of martial arts all showcased under the limelight of the competition. The oldest participant at this edition was more than 60 years old, while the youngest was merely six.

This was the second time for Emeishan to play host to the World Kungfu Championships, after the success of the 7th World Kungfu Championships that was held there in 2017. As one of the homes of cutting-edge Chinese wushu and the cradle of the Emei sect of martial arts, the city of Emeishan has taken an active stance on the promotion of Emei kungfu in recent years, and has hosted six sessions of the "International Wushu Festival of Mount Emei, Sichuan, China".

Emei martial arts is noted for its unique balance between both hard and soft techniques, and cultivation of both internal and external skills. With more than three millennia of history, the Emei sect is famed alongside Shaolin and Wudang as the three major Chinese martial arts clans.

Being the birthplace of the Emei school, the eponymous Mount Emei is a World Natural Heritage, a World Cultural Heritage, as well as one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. Rising to a height of 3,099 meters, Mount Emei is located at an intersection of various natural elements and thus is well-endowed with remarkable biodiversity that includes a substantial number of distinct and indigenous species. There are more than 3,200 species of plants on Mount Emei, which accounts for one-tenth of the total number of species found in China. At the same time, Mount Emei also functions as the habitat for a plethora of rare animals, with more than 2,300 in total number of animal species.

Mount Emei is famous around the world for its picturesque natural landscape, time-honored Buddhist culture and unique topography, thus giving rise to the saying "Emei, Most Elegant in the World". In 2008, Emei martial arts was inducted into the list of intangible cultural heritage of China, thereby becoming yet another emblem of the city of Emeishan.

SOURCE Leshan Municipal Bureau of Sports