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11th National Games kick off in Jinan
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-16 21:39 JINAN: One year after the hosting of the exceptional Beijing Olympic Games, the 11th National Games, billed as China's mini-Olympics, opened amid a splendid ceremony here Friday evening. Chinese President Hu Jintao officially opened the Games at the ceremony held in the newly-built Olympic Sports Complex in this capital city of east China's Shandong province. With 55 of all 63 Chinese Beijing Olympic champions expected to compete, the quadrennial national meet is set to stage another sports extravaganza for the country which just celebrated its 60th birthday. Taking part in the biggest-ever National Games are 10,991 athletes of 46 delegations from all provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, the People's Liberation Army, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and various sports associations of the trades such as railways, coal mining, forestry, finance and banking and aviation. The Games, with the theme of "Harmonious China and People's Games", features 33 sports consisting of all 28 sports in the summer Olympics, four winter sports and wushu as well. Before its official kick-off, finals of 104 events from winter sports and summer sports such as table tennis, gymnastics and diving have concluded.
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