A group of?people perform yoga along Lihu Lake in Wuxi on Aug 8. [Photo/wxrb.com]

Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province offered 8,727 free tickets to its public sports center on Aug 8 in honor of this year's National Fitness Day.

A total of 4,000 tickets to Wuxi Sports Center were handed out within three hours of being offered on Aug 6. Other tickets were given out online.

The basketball, gate ball and skate courts at Wuxi Sports Center and the basketball, gate ball, football and runway fields at Wuxi Sports Park offered free entrance all day on Aug 8, while the swimming pool, badminton and tennis courts were only free for those with tickets.

Backing the event and National Fitness Day is China's State Council, which hopes to promote participation in sports and has been celebrating the day since 2009 by making all public sports facilities free for the day and promoting activities that focus on fitness.