Yoga course may provide fresh approach to Sino-Indian relations

Twelve postgraduate students at China's first college dedicated to the activity are hoping to become cross-cultural ambassadors. Li Yingqing reports from Kunming, with Yang Zekun in Beijing.

Yoga is one of the most popular activities in China, especially among young white-collar workers, and almost every gym offers courses.

So it is fitting that the country is home to the only dedicated Yoga college in the world outside of India. The school aims to foster professional-level talent with sound practical and academic foundations.

The India-China Yoga College, in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, was founded by Yunnan Minzu University and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in June 2015.

In September 2017, the college, which is part of the university, enrolled its first group of 40 undergraduate students to study under the social sports guidance and management program.

A year later, 12 candidates for master's degrees were recruited for a program that offers tuition related to the traditional sports enjoyed by members of China's ethnic groups.

The students, who had to take the university's postgraduate entrance exam and pay 36,000 yuan ($5,388) for annual tuition, are the first master's candidates in China to major in yoga, though they also study traditional Chinese medicine and the history of martial arts.

Because they will spend two years studying in China and one year in India, they are learning English, Hindi and Sanskrit to facilitate their studies in the neighboring country.

Ping Ruijuan, one of the 12, already has a master's in translation. The 28-year-old started practicing yoga in 2016 to improve her health when she was studying for her first postgraduate degree.

After experiencing muscular pain after every session in the gym, she attended a number of professional classes to correct her movement. The classes quickly solved the problem, and Ping went on to become a qualified yoga instructor.

She said she is eager to gain deeper understanding of the human body and physiology through the systematic study of yoga. "I am not studying because I want the degree - what I want is the knowledge," she said.