On the morning of 8 August 2009, a new record was set in Beijing, China, for the largest martial-arts display, with 33,996 participants – smashing the previous record of 30,648.

The event took place outside the famous Bird’s Nest, the national Sports Stadium. It was held for the first national Fitness Day in China and also marked the first anniversary of the 2008 Olympic Games. The participants who took part so enthusiastically in the martial-arts display were from all walks of life and had been training for several months to perform the simplified 24-posture Taiji, or martial-arts shadow boxing. The performance was both very neat and beautiful.

Guinness World Records™ adjudicator Angela Wu officiated at the event and afterwards presented a GWR certificate to Mr Liu Jingmin, the vice mayor of Beijing.

12 August 2009