What would an opening ceremony be without a grand fireworks display? Zhao Hui / for China Daily

The Ninth National Ethnic Games will run from Sept 10 to 18, with an ethnic group gala on Sept 15, and eight days of matches.

There will be 129 winners, from 16 general competitive events, including the dragon-boat race, equestrian events, wrestling, and pearl ball. There are also 186 non-competitive demonstrations.

There are expected to be about 5,221 contestants in 34 teams, representing different regions of the country, at 17 venues in the Yunyan, Nanming, Jinyang, and Huaxi districts of Guiyang, and in Qingzhen town. Presiding over this will be 1,335 officials, referees, and coaches, with assistance from 15,000 volunteers.

Some of the more exotic events include:

Pearl Ball

This is a traditional Manchu sport that grew out of the pearl diving business. It uses a ball made of white leather and the clam-shaped racket made of resin.

The arena is 28 meters by 15 meters and is separated into three areas - the competition, defense, and scoring zones. Each team has six athletes: three in the competitive zone, two with rackets in the defense zone, and one with a net in the scoring zone.

The athletes in the competing zone work together to try to get the ball into the opponent's net, while the two in the defense zone use their rackets to keep the competition from scoring. The match has two halves, each lasting 15 minutes, with a 10-minute break.

The team with the most points wins.

Time: Preliminary contest, Sept 13; finals, Sept 18.

Venues: Guiyang physical training arena and Liuguangmen play area.

Spinning Top

This traditional folk sport comes with a long history among the southern ethnic groups such as the Wa, Yao, and Zhuang. The sport can be traced back several thousand years.

The top is a conical wooden toy that balances on a point while spinning and is set in motion by the hand, and kept in motion by being whipped or by pulling a string wrapped around it. The match has a cycle of attacking and defending.

The defending side put their top in the arena and the attacking side throw theirs onto the arena to hit the spinning top. The attacking side score when the defense's top has been pushed out of the arena or when their own top out-spins the defense's.

Points are gained only by the attacking side. The team with more points wins.

This Spinning Top activity is so prevalent on the streets of Guizhou that you can find people here and there whipping their tops morning and evening. The heaviest tops weigh about 5 kilograms.

Time: Preliminary contest, Sept 13; finals, Sept 17.

Venues: Subsidiary facility of Guiyang Olympic Center, and Jinyang play area.

Zhang Yu contributed to the story

(China Daily 09/10/2011 page10)