Student athletes gather in Ningbo

Student athletes compete in a beach football match during the 2023 "Youth and Sea" College Students Coastal Sports Carnival in Xiangshan county, Ningbo. [Photo/Ningbo Daily]

Despite the conclusion of the Hangzhou Asian Games, sports fever is still high in Xiangshan county in Ningbo, Zhejiang province as a sports event attracts student athletes from around the country.

The 2023 "Youth and Sea" College Student Coastal Sports Carnival kicked off on Oct 9 in Xiangshan, which is home to the venues of beach volleyball and sailing events of the just-concluded Asian Games.

Some 600 student athletes from more than 50 colleges, including Peking University, Fudan University, Xiamen University and Wuhan University, are expected to attend the event, which will last until Oct 22.

Four competitions - beach volleyball, beach football, sailing and frisbee - will be held during the event. The beach volleyball and sailing competition will be held at the two Asian Games venues – the Banbianshan Beach Volleyball Center and Ningbo Xiangshan Sailing Center – respectively.

"It's my first time in Ningbo and I was amazed by the locals' hospitality," said Li Hanzhi, a football player from the Renmin University of China, "It's also my first time playing five-person beach football. I hope we can win the competition while enjoying the exciting coastal sporting event."

Zhang Kuan, a student at Hunan Normal University, is also a first-time visitor to Xiangshan.

"Ningbo is quite different from Changsha, an inland city where we come from. It's a fashionable and young city," Zhang said.