The 15th Philippine Campus Table Tennis League kicked off in Manila on April 7. Liu Wei, a seven-time world table tennis champion, attended the event, along with a group of teachers and students from the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports. All the local players were excited by their presence and vigorously compared notes with them.

Xu Zhichao, vice president of Uni-Orient Travel, one of the event’s organizers, said as the largest youth table tennis game in the Philippines, the “Uni-Orient Cup” Philippine Campus Table Tennis League has been held for 15 years running.

This year, the two-day match attracted the most players ever with 308 teams — a total of 1,232 youths representing 140 universities, middle schools and elementary schools in the country. What’s more, the champion will be given the chance to visit Beijing for learning and exchange, Xu added.

Liu, who is now an associate professor at Peking University, recalled last year she received the champion of this match in Beijing. After the opening ceremony she attended a symposium, along with nearly 100 local officials, table tennis coaches and players. At the symposium, Liu shared her career experiences and talked about the history of this sport, Chinese table tennis culture and the winning spirit of Chinese table tennis teams.

At the opening ceremony, Xu Zhongrong, president of Uni-Orient Travel, promised his company would donate 10 million pesos ($191,500) to the Philippine Sports Commission to build the country’s first table tennis training center. This would further promote sporting exchanges between youths of the two countries.

“I really appreciate the donations from the Philippine Chinese community and the visit of the world table tennis champion. In the future we hope that, with table tennis serving as a carrier, we can have more sporting exchanges with China,” Ramon Fernandez, commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission, said in an interview.

“I also look forward to more visits from great Chinese table tennis players and coaches, which can greatly facilitate development of the sport in the Philippines. We look to cultivate a world table tennis champion here,” Fernandez added.

Recent years have seen increasing table tennis exchanges between the two countries. Since 2015, the Philippines have sent a youth table tennis team to Beijing for exchange each year. In 2016, a group of table tennis players from the Sports School Affiliated to the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports visited Manila, where they played with champions of the Philippine Campus Table Tennis League and players of the country’s national table tennis team in an exhibition game.