The First China Hangzhou (Tonglu) International Equestrian Open will be held in Tonglu county, East China's Zhejiang province, from May 13 to 18, said its organizers on Tuesday.

The organizers said the equestrian open is one of the major events to be held in the run-up to the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou scheduled for Sept 23 to Oct 8 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang's provincial capital.

The venue for the open is the Tonglu Equestrian Center, which is also the competition venue for Asian Games' equestrian competition. With a total construction area of about 54,000 square meters, the venue is capable of hosting high-level international equestrian events.

The competition will enable Asian Games' organizers to better inspect and test the venue facilities for the Asian Games, said Xia Jiliang, Party secretary of Tonglu.

Tonglu's government signed a memorandum of understanding with the exhibition unit of Shanghai-based China COSCO Shipping Corp - the country's largest shipping service provider by sales revenue - in September 2022. The latter will be responsible to ship horses to Tonglu from other parts of the world for the equestrian open.

Before the competition, China COSCO will charter a cargo plane to ship nearly 50 horses from Europe to Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport. After landing and customs procedures, these horses will go through the biological safety channel to ship to Tonglu for the competition, said Han Jun, assistant president of China COSCO Shipping and board chairman of COSCO Shipping Logistics Co Ltd.