Pandaland CrossFit Challenge: Chengdu takes centre stage as the sport continues to emerge across China
- After spending eight years in New Zealand, Eric Zhu Chen became inspired by the lifestyle and moved back to Chengdu and opened a CrossFit box
Chengdu can thank New Zealand for sparking its CrossFit scene, which now features five official affiliate gyms in the city of 7.8 million people in the heart of China’s Sichuan province.
In 2000, Eric Zhu Chen, who had lived in Chengdu since he was a child, headed to the University of Canterbury in Christchurch to do a bachelor’s degree in commerce. Chen, 38, ended up spending eight years living in New Zealand and was sold on an entirely different way of life.
“I really loved the lifestyle of how everybody enjoys the outdoors and working out, and fitness, and being fit and healthy,” said Chen, who is one of the founders of CrossFit Tianfu, named after one of the city’s nicknames (the land of plenty).
“I felt like I was in another world, where people were enjoying the outdoors, swimming in the rivers and the lakes, climbing mountains, snowboarding, which is not what I could really enjoy back in Chengdu at that time growing up. So it really introduced me to the lifestyle of keeping fit and active.”
Chen then returned to his hometown for family reasons and put another plan into motion.
