A greenway in the Wenjiang district of Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, has been named the national fitness demonstration project by the State General Administration of Sports.

It is the first so-named project in the central and western parts of China, according to the administration.

In a circular issued nationwide by the administration, the greenway has improved local people's fitness environment and can serve as a good role model.

According to Yan Liang, chief of the Wenjiang district sports bureau, his district has built 140 kilometers of the greenway passing villages so that rural people can walk or take exercise easily.

Up to now, more than 1.2 million people have walked and cycled on the greenway, he said.