The ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics has reignited people's interest in the niche sport of climbing, especially kids who are at the perfect age to take up the discipline.
Climb-Up Paris, the largest indoor climbing gym in France located in southern Paris, has seen a surge in young participants drawn to its high-quality facilities.
"It's more practical to learn climbing when you are young. They are much more comfortable with heights than adults. They always find a solution, and to climb up the wall, and get up high despite the fact that they are smaller than us and they couldn't be more scared because they have seen fewer things in life," said Cathy Bremaud, the communications director of the center.
Sport climbing is relatively new to the Olympics, debuting at Tokyo 2020. There are two disciplines in Paris, namely speed-climbing up walls and a combined event of wall-climbing plus bouldering, which is performed on lower walls, without a rope.
The center has seen a significant increase in the number of younger members, with a total of 250 new children signing up in the last year.
"Here that works well because people in Paris are always looking for something different, and so for the young ones, a place like this works very well, and we put in place fun activities for them," said Simon Brusco, the climbing development manager of Climb-Up Paris.
Olympics inspire young Parisians to take up sport climbing
China's automobile industry showed a growing trend in August, with both production and sales of vehicles increasing month on month, while those of new energy vehicles (NEVs) recorded a double-digit year-on-year growth, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on Tuesday.
In August, auto production and sales in China surpassed 2.49 million and 2.45 million units, respectively, showing month-on-month increases of 9 percent and 8.5 percent, with year-on-year decreases of 3.2 percent and 5 percent, indicating a smaller decline compared with the previous month.
During the January-August period, auto production and sales totaled about 18.67 million and 18.77 million units respectively, reflecting year-on-year growth of 2.5 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
In August, the production and sales of NEVs achieved 1.09 million and 1.10 million units, respectively, representing an increase of 29.6 percent and 30 percent year on year. The sales of NEVs in August account for 44.8 percent of the new vehicle sales in China.
In the first eight months of this year, the production of NEVs reached nearly 7.01 million units, rising 29 percent year on year. The sales of NEVs hit almost 7.04 million units, growing by 30.9 percent from a year earlier. The market share of NEVs in China reached 37.5 percent in the period.
On the export front, auto exports reached 511,000 units in August, marking a year-on-year increase of 25.4 percent. Among these, exports of NEVs totaled 110,000 units, showing a 22-percent growth year on year.
China's auto industry reports rising vehicle production, sales in August
