City marathons prosper in China

XIAMEN, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Three and a half kilometers into run and with a long way to go, Hangzhou Marathon participant Jimmy Jiang got down on one knee in front of the girl he has been dating for three and a half years, and proposed.

Yes! The lucky guy got a "yes"!

The 28-year-old Jiang and his girlfriend went on to finish the race and disappeared into a crowd hand in hand.

Back in 1981 when China's first international marathon was launched in Beijing, less than 200 people participated in the race. And few of them could imagine that running a marathon would be a chance to win a heart.

After three decades of development, city marathons and fun runs have been enjoying an outrageous growth in China with the year 2012 witnessing some 500,000 people run in 33 marathon and fun races.

Nowadays, marathon is seen not only as a sport event in China but also a culture gala to enjoy and celebrate. For some entrants running a marathon is a chance to dress up with cosplay costumes, to fulfil a life objective, or propose to your beloved one.

"City marathons experienced a rapid growth in the past three years," said Du Zhaocai, a deputy chief of the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA), during the 2012 Chinese Marathon Annual Conference held in China's Xiamen on Friday.

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