Kunming festival shows growing following for yoga

Celebrity guests include Om Prakash Tiwari, secretary-general of the Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute. [Photo by Zhou Tao/China Daily]

Hao, who has just opened her second club in Beijing, says her outlets typically have around 3,000 members, mainly office workers who want to ease stress and housewives who want to look good.

Every year, Hao spends time in India learning from her yoga guru. In recent years, the chances of her seeing Chinese tourists in India with yoga mats have increased, she says.

Due to the growing yoga craze in China, Deepika Mehta, 38, a yoga teacher from India, has visited China frequently since 2014.

She was one of the 18 Indian teachers invited to the yoga festival in Kunming.

Before coming to the festival, Mehta taught yoga in Rishikesh, the "yoga capital of the world", in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India.

About 40 percent of yoga practitioners in her class are from China, says Mehta, who began practicing the ancient regimen 17 years ago to help her walk after a bad accident.

"Many of my Chinese students tell me that they want to be yoga teachers. It's also a fad in India, where women want to be yoga teachers," says Mehta with a smile.