China's first yoga library opens in Guangdong Province, further booming the two countries' cultural exchange

China's first yoga library officially opened in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on Tuesday. Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Misri and his wife visited the library during its opening, according to the report of China News.

The library currently has more than 10,000 rare yoga books published in various languages around the world, as well as a large collection of books on the humanities, history, philosophy, sports and medicine.

"Most of the books are Chinese and some are written in Sanskrit. People can borrow the books after paying for a library card, just like a normal library," an employee of the B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Institute in Guangzhou where the library is located, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The Guangzhou institute, authorized by B.K.S. Iyengar himself, was established in June 2012. Currently, the B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Institute has branches in more than 10 cities around the world including Beijing and Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province. It provides yoga teachers and courses to hundreds of yoga venues and training academies in China.

"Most of the students are Chinese and some are Indians living in China. Both old and young people like doing yoga here, and some yoga teachers even come here for further study," said the employee.

Yoga has become one of the most popular forms of exercise in China, and it continues to spread across the country. In 2008, more than 7,000 yoga clubs have been established in China, and the number of Chinese yoga practitioners has reach 300 million.

Each year, yoga events are held in China to celebrate International Yoga Day. On June 21, 2019, the China-India Yoga Festival was held in Dujiangyan, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. A total of 20 yoga masters from seven schools in India participated in the event.

Source: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1221710.shtml