SONG CHEN/CHINA DAILY

Forget shopping. Well-off, fitness-focused Chinese are now more interested in snapping sweaty selfies at international marathons, report Matt Prichard, Yan Dongjie and Yu Yilei in Beijing and Wang Mingjie in London.

Xie Guoping had always kept in shape. The former real estate company owner from Shanghai hiked, climbed mountains and played badminton, and her friends did, too.

But the 50-year-old says that in 2013 her friends took up a new pursuit: running.

Soon she was completing marathons, and before too long she was flying around the globe to participate in some of the world's best-known sporting events.

Xie and her friends are not alone. A growing interest in fitness has propelled running into a major sport in China. At the same time, expanding prosperity has meant Chinese runners have gone from being rare at international marathons to having a noticeable presence.

This year, 150 Chinese－106 men and 44 women－registered for the April 24 London Marathon, a race that attracts 38,000 runners annually and is one of the six top marathons in the world.

That's a 417 percent increase from the 29 Chinese entrants last year, organizers say. In 2014 there were only 11.

"This trend caught my attention about three years ago," says Du Mingrui, 34, general manager of ZX-Tour Co, who is also a keen runner. "The number of Chinese going abroad to run is growing tremendously."

His company, which specializes in organizing running training camps and tours, is among a number of enterprises serving the growing legion of Chinese runners.

Last year, just three Chinese people took part in the Jerusalem Marathon, including two who were local residents, according to Du. The number surged to 156 at this year's event, held on March 18.