Nearly 600 primary school students from China and Japan joined
in table tennis games on Thursday, as part of celebration of the
2007 China-Japan Culture and Sports Year.
"China and Japan have witnessed rapid growth in fields of
politics, economy, culture and sports since the normalization of
bilateral relations in 1972," said Xu Yinsheng, a former world
table tennis champion and chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis
Association.
The first sports exchange between two countries since the
founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, took place in
1956, when China took part in the 23rd World Table Tennis
Championships in Tokyo.
(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2007)
