Chinese products shine among Hangzhou Asian Games participants

Chinese products won the admiration of many foreign participants at the 19h Asian Games, which     1     (conclude) in Hangzhou, the capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, on Oct. 8th.

Oksana Chusovitina,     2     48-year-old Uzbek gymnast, expressed her admiration for the training     3     (facility) and comfortable accommodations. She even inquired about where     4     (purchase) the same mattress she used in the Asian Games Village. To her delight, the mattress manufacturer gifted her one after hearing about her interest. In     5     (add) to the athletes, former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal, who came to Hangzhou to watch the Games, bought a pair of stylish sunglasses at the market. Some international athletes also visited the Wulin Night Market,     6     they bought items like handmade silver jewelry, Chinese-style hairpins     7     (feature) plum blossom patterns. Among the items was a distinctive local mask recognized     8     a traditional cultural item.

Moreover, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) continues to draw international visitors. An athlete from the UAE bought wormwood heating compress packs,     9     another packed an entire suitcase with Chinese patent medicines for his family. He explained that his mother is a TCM lover and that such medicines are     10     (fair) hard to come by overseas.

Among all the Winter Paralympics events, para snowboard is the youngest. It originally made its first public     1     (appear) at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games as part of the downhill skiing with snowboard cross. Para snowboard     2     (recognize) as its own sport for PyeongChang 2018 when banked slalom (坡面回转) was also added.

Athletes participate in one of the three categories based on their     3     (function) ability—SB-LL1 and SB-LL2 for athletes with lower limb impairments (下肢受损) and SB-UL for athletes with an upper limb impairment. During the event, snowboarders wear boots, helmets, and other aids specially     4     (adapt) for their needs to ensure safety.

At the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics, athletes competed     5     eight gold medals in both snowboard cross and banked slalom. The Chinese team for this sport was also the youngest among the participating teams, with the average age of its     6     (member) being 21. 8 years. The team, how-ever, made history,     7     (top) the para snowboard medals table with three gold, three silver and four bronze medals.

As a racing event,     8     athletes need to pass through a certain number of flag doors while working     9     (achieve) the fastest speed across the hilly snow field, para snowboard requires long-term training and demonstrates     10     Olympic spirit of self-improvement.

Winter sports were already popular in China a thousand years ago in the form of Bingxi (冰嬉), or play on ice. Bingxi as     1    form of performance for the court began in the Song Dynasty and reached its peak during Qing. A Bingxi painting in the collection of the Palace Museum portrays scenes of Bingxi during the Qing Dynasty. A closer look at the painting will show that there are many     2     (similarity) between how ancient Chinese people enjoyed games on ice and modern day     3     (compete) events at the Winter Olympic Games.

In the painting, the emperor,     4     (seat) inside his ice bed, was watching skaters compete     5    (fierce). Three types of ice skating were performed, the first one of     6     is speed race, similar to modern speed skating. Participants raced to the emperor’s ice bed from 2 to 3 kilometers away.     7     reached the emperor first won first prize. The second is figure skating. Jumps, spins and pair work moves common in modern day figure skating can all be found in the painting. The third is the soccer on ice. Participants in two teams skated, kicked and tried to score goals. If the “tool” for scoring goals     8     (change) from legs to sticks, it is highly comparable to hockey.

To this day, the interest     9     winter sports in Chinese people has never decreased. Each winter, in Beihai and Shichahai of Beijing, people are still enjoying     10     (they) forms of Bingxi.