Consulate General of IndiaShanghai

Press Release

6th city – Yiwu – hosts 2nd International Day of Yoga at Meihu Sports Stadium with 1000 Yoga lovers participating

( 23 June 2016, Yiwu, Zhejiang)

The sixth in the nine city celebrations of the 2nd International Day of Yoga (IDY) in the Eastern China Region was jointly organized by Consulate General of India, Shanghai along with Yiuw Municipal People’s Government today.

2. The 2nd IDY celebration was hosted at the Meihu Sports Stadium and more than 1000 registered and participated in the Yoga celebrations. It may be noted that in the Eastern China Region, Yiwu, is host to one of the largest Indian trading community, with nearly 2000 Indian residents based out of Yiwu. As such, in addition to Chinese participants, several Indian nationals also participated in today’s event.

3. Giving the inaugural address at the IDY launch, Yiwu Vice Mayor, Xiong Tao, welcomed the performance of Yoga into Yiwu city and stated that Yiwu was looking forward to hosting the India Culture Week very soon. Given its large following in Yiwu, especially with a large number of international community residents presents, Vice Mayor added that Yoga had the potential to promote values of harmony and peace between India and China. Vice Mayor (incharge of culture) Madam Wang Ying also graced the occasion and joined in the lighting of the traditional Indian lamp to commence the 2nd IDY celebrations in Yiwu.

4. Consulate General of India Shanghai had arranged through local resources a Chinese speaking Indian Yoga teacher, who conducted the Yoga session for the nearly 1000 Yoga practitioners, based on the Common Yoga Protocol sent by the Department of AYUSH. The event was extremely well received by the large number of Yoga follower community in Yiuw, which has a large number of Yoga clubs based there.

5. A special publication chronicling the global celebrations of last year’s IDY from nearly 192 countries in the world was also presented to Yiwu city leadership by Consul General of India in Shanghai.

6. It may be noted that in the Eastern China region of Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, 2nd IDY celebrations are being organized by CGI Shanghai from 18 – 26 June, one day each across nine cities in ECR, with theme of “Nine cities, Nine Days, Bringing together 9000 Yoga Lovers closer to India”! Each of the venues chosen in the nine cities, i.e. Wenzhou (18th

June), Wuxi (19th June), Zhenjiang (20th June), Shanghai ( 21st June) Taizhou (22nd June), Yiwu (today), Shaoxing (24th June), Yangzhou (25th June), and Ningbo (26th June), will be at prestigious open public spaces with participation from more than 1000 people at each venue. Taken in conjunction with Taizhou’s last month Yoga event, nearly 1500 yoga lovers have so far joined in the 2nd IDY celebrations locally.

Yiwu23 June 2016

Enclosed: Select pictures of the Yoga Event at Yiwu