The 2013 National Hiking Campaign, which calls on citizens to keep fit actively, regularly and scientifically, opened in Qingdao's Licang district on Oct 13.

The campaign, welcoming over 5,000 citizens, also included two other activities, the Mass Fitness Display and Walking and Leisure Tour.

The 2013 National Hiking Campaign aims to raise citizen awareness of fitness and leisure, popularizing the upcoming 2014 Qingdao International Horticultural Exposition, demonstrating the progress of creating a vigorous and livable urban area, and promoting ecological concepts, according to the organizers.

Qingdao Licang district has been committed to building a strong ecological environment, advocating a healthy lifestyle, and creating a nice leisure area in recent years.

The district will hold the 2014 Qingdao International Horticultural Exposition from April to October 2014, showing the progressive relationship between humans and nature.

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), walking (hiking) is the best mode of daily exercise. 1992 witnessed the launch of a hiking campaign by the Association for International Sport for All, a nonprofit organization leading the global sport.

As a kind of exercise, hiking is simple and well-adapted to human physiology. Millions of people around the world participate in hiking campaigns every year.