Officials announce at a press conference on Sept 25 that the 2021 Fencing Open Competition will take place in Guilin's Pingle county from Oct 2 to 3. [Photo by Guan Zhiyuan/chinadaily.com.cn]

The 2021 Fencing Open Competition will take place in Guilin's Pingle county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region from Oct 2 to 3, officials announced at a press conference held on Sept 25.

Being the first national fencing competition to take place in Guangxi, the event will be held by the Sports Administration of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guilin municipal people's government.

The competition will have three categories, namely epee, foil and sabre for both men and women, applying the models of both group stage and a straight knockout stage. The referee team will be led by a referee from the international level and consist of around 70 national referees.

It is estimated that nearly 1,000 youth fencers from all over the country will compete in the event.

Zhou Zhengying, Party secretary of Pingle county, speaks during the press conference. [Photo by Guan Zhiyuan/chinadaily.com.cn]

Pingle has paved a new way of integrating cultural tourism and ecological protection by holding large-scale sports events and tourism festivals, and has attracted lots of tourists.

The county has attracted 1.46 million domestic and overseas tourists in the first eight months of 2021, which is a 44.97 percent increase year on year and the overall tourism consumption expanded by 44.21 percent year on year to 1.42 billion yuan ($219.9 million).

Zhou Zhengying, Party secretary of Pingle county, expressed her hope that the fencing competition can further promote the high-quality development of Pingle's cultural tourism industry and build a high-end sports brand by integrating sports, culture, health and tourism to attract more investors to Pingle.

Sun Wei, a national fencing athlete, is the spokesperson of the 2021 Fencing Open Competition in Pingle. [Photo by Guan Zhiyuan/chinadaily.com.cn]