Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday declared open the 10th National Games amid a grand inaugural ceremony at the modern Olympic Sports Complex in Nanjing.
Taking part in the biggest-ever National Games will be 9,985 athletes from 46 teams representing provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions, the People's Liberation Army, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and various sports associations of trades such as railways, coal mining, forestry, finance and banking and even aviation.
The games, with the theme "sports meet and people's festival," features 32 sports, including all events from the summer Olympics.
Meanwhile, one more women's weightlifting world record was broken yesterday while shuttlers Xie Xingfang, a world champion, and Olympic titlist Zhang Ning suffered early exits in the women's event at the games here.
Hunan's Li Liying snatched 125kg in her third attempt to better the world record held by Olympic champion Liu Chunhong by 2.5kg and win the gold medal in the 69kg class.
She finished the jerk with 150kg - 3kg short of the world mark set by Liu at the Athens Olympic Games. Her total result of 275kg also leveled the world mark written by Liu in Athens.
Liu, one of the top 10 lifters elected by the International Weightlifting Federation in March, has upgraded to the 75kg category after the Athens Olympics. She will compete for the title in 75kg class today.
By far, 14 strongwomen have bettered the world records of the snatch, jerk or total 37 times at the National Games.
The women's badminton competition was off to a stunning start.
World champion Xie from Guangdong was upset 0-2 by Hong Kong's Wang Chen in the second round and Olympic champion Zhang from Liaoning was eliminated by little known Zhu Lin of Shanghai 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
Former Olympic champion Gong Zhichao from Hunan, who returned from retirement last December, was stopped by another rising star Jiang Yanjiao of the Chinese Army in the second round.

Biggest winner
Gong, who won the gold medal in the Sydney Olympics, lost to Jiang 2-1 and immediately announced that he was retiring again.
Host Jiangsu became the day's biggest winner by taking three judo golds.
In the first final yesterday, 23-year-old Wang Juan beat Han Weiyan from the Coal Miners Sports Association to win the title in the women's 70kg class.
Subsequently, two male fighters Xu Zhiming and Song Qitao fired up the local audience with two more golds.
In the men's 90kg final, defending champion Xu beat Zhu Xiangcai from Liaoning with an ippon. His teammate Song rolled his opponent Chen Hai down on shoulder in men's 100kg title-chasing final.
Song, top seed of the men's half heavy weight category, who will end his judo career after the games, has been the title favorite and his title winning run further enlarged the home delegation's advantage on medal table to 29 golds, seven more to second-placed Guangdong.
Du Min from Liaoning broke the monopoly of the host in the day's judo finals. The 26-year-old beat Yang Xiuli from Sichuan to take the gold of the women's 78kg category.
Off the pitch, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge has tipped China to top the medals table at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"The results that you achieved at the Athens Olympics last year have shown Chinese sports is really getting to the top," Rogge said in Nanjing yesterday. "I would not be surprised if China leads the medal count in Beijing."
China finished third behind the US and Russia in Athens with 32 golds, 17 silvers and 14 bronzes.