Wuhan racing to prepare for China's first 'military Olympics'

The number of participants and the competition items are expected to hit a record high compared with the former sessions.

Being the first time that a Chinese city will host the event, Wuhan pledged to further exert its role as a major platform for athletes in military camps all over the world to display their strength and enhance friendship.

On Oct 18, the one-year countdown party of the 7th Military World Games was held in Hankou, Wuhan.

At the event, four soldiers from China, Hungary, Tanzania and Brazil each brought a pot of water from the Yangtze, Nile, Danube and Amazon rivers and poured them into one container, symbolizing the pact of peace among the soldiers in the continents of Asia, Europe, Africa and America.

"Wuhan will become the capital of world peace," said Colonel Herve Piccirillo, CISM president, after his investigation in Wuhan last June.

"The Military Games is a global event. Military athletes from all countries gathering in Wuhan will fully interpret the essence of peace and friendship," Piccirillo said.