Young soccer players from Germany watch a lion dance at Nantong University. [Photo/Nantong University]

The ninth China-Germany U16 Soccer Tournament opened in Nantong, Jiangsu province, on Aug 1.

The tournament features teams of youths from German clubs including 1. FC Union Berlin and SV Waldhof Mannheim, as well as a team selected from the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region. They are competing against five Chinese teams from Xiongan in Hebei and the cities of Nantong, Suzhou and Yangzhou in Jiangsu.

More than 100 young players and coaches from the three German youth teams also took part in a range of cultural activities at Nantong University.

They tried their hand at intangible cultural heritage crafts such as paper cutting, sugar painting and weaving, and learned about traditional Chinese medicine. They also watched a lion dance and enjoyed performances featuring Chinese folk instruments and traditional vocal music.

Young athletes try their hand at sugar painting. [Photo/Nantong University]

Young athletes learn to make dumplings. [Photo/Nantong University]