Some 200 students learns Yoga at Dujiangyan city, Sichuan province.[Photo/Chengdu.cn]

As Zubin Zarthoshtimanesh, a yoga guru, demonstrated postures at a high school stadium in Dujiangyan city, Sichuan province, some 200 students sat on colorful mats watching him closely.

It was part of the first India-China international yoga festival in the provincial capital, Chengdu, in Southwest China, where more than 1,000 fans from home and abroad gathered for lessons from 20 leading practitioners of the ancient Indian regimen, from June 17-21.

Yoga is to India what perhaps tai chi is to China.

Many countries other than India and China, also held the first World Yoga Day on June 21, after the United Nations last year agreed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's suggestion that a special day be marked in the year for the global practice of the stress-busting regimen, which is already a multibillion dollar industry in the United States.

Modi said in the speech: "Yoga is an invaluable gift of India's ancient tradition. ... It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and nature."

Zarthoshtimanesh, who runs his own yoga center, Iyengar Yogabhyasa, in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, says: "Chinese students are very respectful. For me, all students are the same no matter what their race is and where they come from. The most important thing is to remove mental walls."

Zarthoshtimanesh learned yoga from the late Yogacharya Iyengar and traveled with the master to different countries.

Consulate General of India in southern China's Guangzhou city organized the Chengdu festival.

"It's a very good opportunity for someone like me from a different background to get an insight into yoga," says Mary Car, 33, who practices yoga two hours every day.

She taught yoga in Australia and moved to Hong Kong six weeks ago after her husband was posted there.

She says the exposure to Indian yoga teachers in China has been different from her experiences of yoga in Western countries.

"My education of yoga is quite different from what I'm learning here, such as the subtle approaches. In the West, it's powerful and more about getting into postures. But here it's all about the internal transformation, with more focus on the breathing and mind-body connection."