Participants show Five Animals exercise during a contest in Beijing in this July 24, 2010 file photo. [Photo/Xinhua]

HEFEI - Wuqinxi, a medical exercise imitating movements of five animals, has become more and more popular in China in recent years.

"I come here to practice Wuqinxi every morning and I have been doing this for 15 years," said the 60-year-old lady Gao Sujun in Bozhou city of China's Anhui province. "You can see how healthy I am."

There were lots of people playing Wuqinxi in the early morning in Bozhou despite the cold weather in December.

As the origin of Wuqinxi, Bozhou is in full swing to launch a popularity campaign to promote the exercise. Currently, the city has more than 100 teaching centers of Wuqinxi and about 1,400 instructors who give instructions to more than 100,000 exercisers.

A famous doctor called Hua Tuo in Eastern Han Dynasty invented Wuqinxi, a series of physical exercises based on movements of the tiger, deer, bear, ape, and crane about 2,000 years ago when many people suffered an epidemic disease. The exercise was meant to help the patients prevent the disease.

Chen Jing, a Wuqinxi master, has been promoting Wuqinxi for 20 years ago.

"Wuqinxi helped my teacher Liu Shirong a lot. And he asked me to spread it," she said.

The municipal government of Bozhou city has opened three clubs to promote Wuqinxi since 2005.

Moreover, the local government sent Wuqinxi masters to teach in foreign countries. Chen said she was proud to see Wuqinxi flourish abroad.

He Jianhua, the head of the Tai Chi Association of Guoyang County of Bozhou, visited Benin in August, 2010, where he taught Wuxinqi for two months and single-handedly triggered a Wuqinxi "fever" in Cotonou, the largest city of Benin.

Currently, at least 1,600 martial arts enthusiasts from more than 10  countries came to Bozhou city to learn Wuqinxi.