NANCHANG - Southeastern Chinese city Nanchang will open the 7th Chinese City Games on Sunday.

The 10-day games, which features 300 disciplines over 25 sports, attracts about 7,000 young athletes who hope to jump from the Nanchang event to a bigger platform.

Former NBA star Yao Ming made his early name in the City Games as he played his first national game in Xi'an in 1999.

Yao's fellow Shanghaiese Liu Xiang clinched the City Games' 110 hurdles gold in 2003 and continued to win the Olympic title in 2004.

Deng Yaping, one of the most crowned Chinese Olympians, had jumped to fame in the 1st City Games in which the then 15-year-old table tennis player kept an unbeaten record in the team event and went on to claim the women's singles title.

The inaugural City Games also witnessed the rise of Li Xiaoshuang, who caught the attention of Chinese gymnastics coach Gao Jian and made it to the national team.

Li later became China's first ever Olympic all-round gold medalist.