Kunming festival shows growing following for yoga

The Kunming yoga festival draws a big crowd of Chinese fans. [Photo by Zhou Mingjia/China Daily]

From young women in their 20s to grandmas in their 80s, thousands of yoga lovers from across China went to Kunming in Yunnan province on May 19 for the China India Yoga Festival, paying thousands of yuan to learn from 18 Indian yoga gurus at a four-day course.

"It's well worth it. Otherwise I would have planned a visit to India to study yoga," says Lu Jinnan, 38, a resident of Kunming.

She booked a hotel room near the building that was used for the yoga course to save time and learn more from the Indian teachers, although her home is only a 30-minute drive from the venue.

In Kunming, yoga clubs have mushroomed during the past five years－a trend also sweeping other cities in China.

"How popular is yoga in China? It only takes me a few minutes to sell a membership of my yoga club," says Hao Yuhui, who owns five yoga clubs in China.

A one-year membership of her yoga club sells for around 16,000 yuan ($2,460).

"Ten years ago, I had to spend hours explaining to potential clients what yoga is."