Anti-doping blind box popular among athletes at China's National Games

XI'AN, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The blind box developed for the ongoing 14th National Games anti-doping education program has become the most popular souvenir at the Athletes' Village as athletes and coaches crowd into the CHINADA anti-doping outreach booth.

The blind box has a set of six variants for the China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) mascot Lingling, whose design is inspired by a bell as they have the same Chinese pronunciation. Each participant could pick one blindly after they take part in the anti-doping quizzes at the indoor booth and play outdoor games. Since the opening of the National Games on Sept. 15, there have been nearly 3,000 athletes and coaches visiting.

The indoor booth, located on the opposite of athletes' canteen in the village, features doping test equipment and posters of anti-doping knowledge in prevention measures, banned list, relative laws and therapeutic usage exemption. Visitors could take quizzes after learning the knowledge and collect digital stamps to exchange for a chance to draw a blind box. They can also collect such stamps by playing games.

"The outreach place is always full of liveliness. Athletes like to learn and play here because we have tried to understand what the young people like nowadays and design activities that appeal to them," said CHINADA official Xie Li who is responsible for the outreach program here.

"A lot of them have collected several Lingling mascots, or even a whole set, which means they have visited here more than once and taken the quizzes several times," he said. "I believe this will help them get very familiar with anti-doping knowledge."

Star athletes also paid visits to the place, including Tokyo Olympic swimming champion Zhang Yufei.

"I like these activities because they are getting more interesting and having more varieties," she said.