The national leisure games kicked off in Rizhao in East China's Shandong Province on Tuesday, with around 2,000 athletes participating.
The months-long games features 208 disciplines in 15 sports and will run until October.
An educational competition for teenagers on aeromodelling, featuring self-built, non-propelled model airplanes, will also be held in Rizhao, which has twice hosted the final.
Rizhao, the host city of the 2022 intra-provincial games, is trying to establish itself as a sports-oriented city and plans to host the leisure games annually.