During the on-going Covid-19 prevention and control, people in Yunnan have created new ways to exercise. The traditional marathons are now recorded online via an app, allowing sports lovers to have fun and exercise easily. For divers, they choose to dive at domestic sites, enjoying beautiful sights underwater.

"Recently, we prefer online races," said Jin Feibao, Yunnan's top explorer who launched a running campaign cross the province. "Since the beginning of this year, I’ve been finishing marathons by myself, timing the races on exercise apps and sharing the running records with my friends online. Wherever I am, I can have my marathon. Maybe online marathon will form a new trend in the future."

After retirement, Ms. Sun became a marathon enthusiast, and now she loves sports even more. Sun said many of her running peers have the same zest in marathon as she does. Before the epidemic, they used to run together, but now they can only run alone in nearby parks or residential quarters. “By using the same sports app, we can follow each other well though we no longer run together physically,” said Sun. Cloud running is fun, and it makes a difference.

Great changes have taken place in diving. At the M60 Creative Park in Kunming, a local diving club provides diving enthusiasts with skill training, equipment purchase and diving tours.

Due to the Covid-19 this year, China does not allow its nationals to have outbound tours, but in Vincent's view, this has brought new opportunities for China to develop diving tourism. “Over the past years, clubs usually recommended overseas spots for diving enthusiasts, but Chinese destinations are more popular this year. The Fuxian Lake in Yunnan is a case in point.”

Not just outdoor sports lovers, those exercising in doors also adopted something new in sports. Ren Chao is an instructor in a Kunming-based fitness studio. She said that during the epidemic, studios were closed and most sports lovers used the Keep app and others to exercise at home. Through a video-link on the mobile phone, she gave online guidance to the trainees, reminding them of exercising on time and correcting their moves when necessary.

Ren added that many sport enthusiasts got treadmills, spinning bikes, wireless rope skipping and others at home for aerobic training. They can also compete with online friends on the same apps shared by the merchant. The new mode for exercise is easy and fun, allowing sports lovers to meet like-minded people who can encourage each other.

By Gateway reporters