Traditional sports with distinct Chinese characteristics are also very popular, including martial arts, taijiquan, qigong, Chinese chess and Go or encirclement chess.

Martial arts, combining exercise and the arts of self-defense, enjoy great popularity in China. Martial arts include bare-handed boxing as well as offence and defense with equipment, both of which has different schools and moves.

Taijiquan, or Chinese shadow boxing, combines control of body, mind and breath. It emphasizes body movements following mind movements, tempering toughness with gentleness and graceful postures.

A system of deep breathing exercises, qigong is a unique Chinese way of keeping fit. It aims at enhancing health, prolonging life, curing illnesses and improving physiological functions by concentrating the mind and regulating the breath.

There are varied entertaining and competitive sports activities in the minority-inhabited areas, for example, wrestling and horsemanship among Mongols, Uygurs and Kazaks, Tibetan yak racing, ethnic Korean "seesaw jumping," crossbow among the Miao, and dragon-boat racing among the Dai nationality.