From left: You Quan, Party chief of Fujian province, Vice-Premier Liu Yandong and Minister of General Administration of Sports Liu Peng attend the opening ceremony of the first National Youth Games in Fuzhou on Sunday. HU MEIDONG/CHINA DAILY

The flowers, which normally wither in August, were grown in greenhouses specially for the sporting showcase, according to an official with the Fuzhou Bureau of Gardening who declined to be named.

"We learned a great deal about putting on an event like this from Nanjing (in Jiangsu province), which staged the Youth Olympic Games in August last year," said Gan Shiguang, director of resources development at the National Youth Games Organization Committee and an official with the Fujian provincial sports bureau.

Like the Nanjing event, the National Youth Games will focus on educational and cultural exchanges as well as sports.

"The gold medal obsession, which has prevailed in the country's State-run sports system, will be dampened at the event," Gan said.

The event has not only given a facelift to Fuzhou's infrastructure, but it has also improved the overall quality of life for people in the city and boosted their well-being, officials and experts pointed out.

"The Fuzhou government has renovated the city's shantytowns, upgraded its road network and built a number of sports venues as well as a range of streets for pedestrians and bicycles," said Yang Yimin, mayor of Fuzhou. "Moreover, the event has significantly boosted the development of the city's sports industry."

All sports facilities at the venues will open to the public after the Games are over, according to the organizing committee of the event.

Fuzhou hosted the China International Sporting Goods Show in May, which attracted nearly 120,000 visitors and more than 1,100 enterprises from China and overseas countries.

Gan Mantang, a professor of sociology at Fuzhou University, said the Games has helped the city improve its infrastructure as well as promoting public fitness programs.

More than 33,000 volunteers, including over 6,000 working at the sporting venues, are involved in staging the Games, according to the event's organizing committee.