11th National Games ofthe People's Republic of China

Host city	Shandong
Country	China
Motto	和谐中国 全民全运
Teams	46
Athletes	10,991
Events	33 sports
Opening	October 16, 2009
Closing	October 28, 2009
Opened by	Hu Jintao
Closed by	Wen Jiabao
Main venue	Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium
Website	sport.gov.cn/n4/n65/
← 10th 12th →

The 11thNational Games of China were held in various cities inShandong from October 16 to October 28, 2009. Represented were 33 sports, 43 disciplines and 362 events, including 4 winter sports which were held inShenyang,Changchun andQingdao between January and April 2009.

In all, a total of 1241 medals were awarded. The host province of Shandong came first on the medals table with 63 gold, 40 silver and 43 bronze. The games saw the triumphant return from injury for Olympic110m hurdles championLiu Xiang. SwimmerLiu Zige also broke theworld record in the women's 200 metres butterfly, taking 2 seconds off from the previous record.

The 11th National Games was labelled by some as "China's Olympics", which is reflective of growing significance of theNational Games in China.

Following the9th National Games in 2001, officials decided to scrap the decades-old convention of rotating the host duties betweenBeijing,Shanghai andGuangdong. TheState Council of the People's Republic of China, decided that a bidding process would decide the host and anyprovince,municipality andautonomous region was eligible to apply. In 2005,Shandong won the right to host the 11th National Games being the only applicant province with the permission of State Council of the People's Republic of China and theState General Administration of Sports.

The logo for the games was designed to embody the concept of "Harmonious China, Energetic Shandong" (和谐中华, 活力山东). The logo is derived from the geometric patterns on artifacts of theWarring States period and theWestern Han Dynasty unearthed inJinan,Shandong. This represents the traditional folk culture of Shandong. The logo also depicts an abstract image of 11 athletes in motion which symbolises the 11th National Games. It is composed of the colours red, black, yellow, green and blue which are the colours of theOlympic rings and refer to the success of the2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The final logo was selected from 3040 entries in a public competition launched in 2007 acrossmainland China,Hong Kong andMacau.

The mascot for the games was a cartoon character called "Taishan Boy" (泰山童子). It alludes the majestic stone of the Shandong'sMount Taishan. The mascot, dressed in a red shirt and white shorts, is an athletic figure giving the thumbs-up. According to the designer said, the character symbolizes "the spirit of life", "health and longevity" and "the enthusiasm and fighting spirit of the host".

The 11th National Games were broadcast both onCCTV-1 andCCTV-5, as well as on the localShandong Television station.

The torch of the 12th National Games, first unveiled on April 28, 2009, is based on the concept ofruyi (如意), a traditional Chinese ceremonialscepter. The torch is 69 cm long. It is designed to resemble theruyi with gold and silver being the colour theme. At the top, the goldenwillow pattern is combined with the greyruyi stripes. The mouth of the torch is shaped like thelotus, which is the city flower ofJinan. Also, the main venue for the games, theJinan Olympic Sports Center, is also known asDonghe Xiliu (East Willow, West Lotus) due to its distinctive architecture.

Mirroring the2008 Olympic Games, a torch relay began on August 1, 2009, atMount Taishan, a cultural site with a tradition of spiritual pilgrimages. The flame was lit in asun ray ceremony byBeijing Olympics gold medalists archerZhang Juanjuan and diverWang Feng. On August 16, theChairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's CongressWu Bangguo received the torch at theGreat Hall of the People which officially marked the start of the relay. The torch was then carried on a two-month relay aroundChina, including through the major centres ofShandong.

The route of the torch relay was (in chronological order):Mount Taishan,Shandong →Beijing →Tianjin →Shijiazhuang,Hebei →Shenyang,Liaoning →Changchun,Jilin →Harbin,Heilongjiang →Hohhot,Inner Mongolia →Taiyuan,Shandong →Xi'an,Shaanxi →Lanzhou,Gansu →Xining,Qinghai →Ürümqi,Xinjiang →Lhasa,Tibet →Kunming,Yunnan →Chengdu,Sichuan →Chongqing →Guiyang,Guizhou →Nanning,Guangxi →Changsha,Hunan →Zhengzhou,Henan →Hefei,Anhui →Nanchang,Jiangxi →Guangzhou,Guangdong →Haikou,Hainan →Macau →Hong Kong →Fuzhou,Fujian →Hangzhou,Zhejiang →Shanghai →Nanjing,Jiangsu.

The Shandong leg included the following cities (in chronological order):Qingdao →Weihai →Yantai →Weifang →Rizhao →Linyi →Zaozhuang →Jining →Heze →Liaocheng →Dezhou →Binzhou →Dongying →Zibo →Laiwu →Tai'an →Jinan.

TheChinese President,Hu Jintao, started the official opening ceremony on October 16, which featured an extensive firework display and a large scale music and dance performance at theJinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium, nicknamedXiliu (西柳), literally "West Willow", due to its resemblance to the city tree, theChinese willow.^[1]IOC PresidentJacques Rogge and a dozen IOC members also attended the ceremony.Liu Peng, who had headed the organising committee for the2008 Beijing Olympics,^[2] stressed the role the Games played in improving the standard of sport in China, and also its importance in promoting fitness as a whole. Following this, the torch was brought into the stadium and the cauldron was lit, signalling the climax of the opening ceremony.^[1]

Sequence of events:

• ShandongGovernorJiang Daming presides over the ceremony.
• Entry of theChinese national flag,flag of the National Games of the People's Republic of China andflag of the 2009 National Games of China into the stadium.
• Entry of representatives of the 46 participating delegates.
• Raising of the Chinese national flag, to the Chinese national anthem,March of the Volunteers.
• Welcoming remarks byCPC Shandong Committee Secretaries,Jiang Yikang.
• Speech by the director of the 11th National Games Organizing Committee and the State General Administration of Sport Secretary,Liu Peng.
• Chinese President Hu Jintao announced the opening of the National Games.
• Fireworks display.
• Raising of the flag of the National Games of the People's Republic of China and the flag of the 2009 National Games of China, to the anthem of the 2009 National Games of China.
• Athletes Oath.
• Judges Oath.
• Wei Wei andLei Yan sing the 11 Games theme song"Gong Yuan Jing Cai" (共圆精彩, roughly translated as"Truly Spectacular").
• Artist performance
  • Introduction
  • Section 1:Qilu Spirit
  • Section 2:Harmonious Wind
  • Section 3:Ode to the Motherland
• Lighting of the cauldron
  • Liu Chunhong
  • Wang Feng,Wang Dan and wife.
  • Xu Zhenchao,Li Denghai,Xu Honggang
  • Wang Hao,Wang Jinbao,Zhang Xiaoping,Lu Xiaolei,Zhou Yuxin
• Opening ceremony theme song
  • "Xiang Qin Xiang Ai" (相亲相爱, literally:"Love Each Other") sung bySun Nan,Kelly Chen,Germano Guilherme andA-mei

The main venues for the games are located in Jinan. TheJinan Olympic Sports Center precinct is home to the main stadium,Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium as well as the indoor stadium, aquatic center and tennis center. Many secondary venues were located in regional centers scattered acrossShandong, including inQingdao,Yantai andWeihai.

The closing ceremony was held on October 28, 2009, in theJinan Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. It was attended byChinese PremierWen Jiabao who officially closed the proceedings.

Events included:

• Government officials, including Wen Jiabao, and other dignitaries enter.
• Athletes enter.
• Song"You Peng Zi Yuan Fang Lai" (有朋自远方来, literally:"Friends from Afar"). Sung byLian Hua andWang Li
• Cui Dalin awards athleteLiu Song.
• Wen Jiabao closes the games.
• Artistic performances.
  • Section 1:Memory of Springwater.
  • Section 2:Passion of the Race Track.
• Cauldron is extinguished.
• Artistic performances continued.
  • Section 3:Starry Sky.

  *   Host nation (Shandong)

With a total of 10,991 athletes from 46 delegations, the event was the largest in the Games' history.^[1] Among the 46 delegations were 4municipalities, 22provincial teams and 5autonomous regions. Further to this, thePeople's Liberation Army sent a team, and fourteen sports association teams were entered (generally associations from specific industry groupings or large organisations).^[3]

In order to qualify for the Games, a random selection of 30–50% of the athletes in thetrack and field events had to pass an exam,^[4] which tested knowledge of anti-doping policy, the damage associated with drug use, and methods of self-protection frombanned substances. The director of theChinese Athletics Association, Du Zhaocai, noted that athletes who had previously been banned for failing drugs tests would not be allowed to compete at the Games. This measure was partly a reaction to the positive test of gold medallistSun Yingjie at the2005 Games, which had caused bad publicity for the event.^[5]Guo Linna, a rower fromHenan, was the first athlete to be disqualified after testing positive for19-norandrostenedione, and shooterLi Jie fromInner Mongolia tested positive for the banned drugpropranolol a few days later.^[6] Women's100 metres gold medallistWang Jing tested positive forepitestosterone and was disqualified from the Games.^[7]

Despite a number of new measures to prevent corruption or abuse of the judging system, one of the judges in the diving competition accused a fellow judge of pre-arranging results. However, an investigation by theState General Administration of Sports detected no signs of foul play.^[4]

• 2008 National Winter Games of China
• 2008 Summer Olympics

• Official website(in Chinese)

• 2009 National Games of China
• 2009 in multi-sport events
• Sport in Shandong
• National Games of China
• October 2009 sports events in China

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