More than 1,000 students from 33 universities in HongKong, Macao, Taiwan and China's mainland gathered in Shanghai on Thursday to kick off the 5th Cross-Straits University Students Sports Exchange Competition.

The event, including football, basketball and volleyball competitions for men and women, was initiated in 2014. The number of participants has been growing year by year, exceeding 1,000 for the first time this year.

The event, organized by Fudan University, is the largest program in China promoting exchanges between university students from the four regions through sports, a form popular among young people.

Besides sports competitions, the students will also participate in plenty of activities, such as a party featuring electronic music and water polo and a competition of short videos about the exchange program.