China Unicycle Association
Beijing, China
China Unicycle Association (CUA)
The China Unicycle Association (CUA) is the official government organization coordinating and organizing unicycling activities in China. In Chinese, it is actually referred to as the "Unicycle Committee" under the Chinese Cycling Association, which is part of the Ministry of Physical Education (?). But upon my advice the name has been changed since "committee" has the wrong implication in English.
I must stress very strongly that the CUA we are talking about is an official government organization that has absolutely nothing to do with the former CUA, of exactly the same name, run by Zhao Yanyang at the time the Great Wall Unicycling Marathon was held in 1993.
The CUA is heavily involved in promoting unicycling in Chinese schools, and was responsible for organizing the China Team to Unicon IX in Germany. They already held five national Chinese meets.
It is important to point out that the Chinese competiton rules are very similar to the IUF rules. They have translated the IUF rule book into Chinese and have studied it closely. CUA Vice Chairman Zhang Shuxiao is now aspiring to become an IUF director, which will give him authority to ensure that Chinese rules follow IUF rules to the letter. This will be the first time, I believe, that a national organization adopts IUF rules officially.
China International Sports Travel Association (CIST)
The China International Sports Travel Association (CIST), which has it headquartes in Beijing together with the China International Sports Travel Company, has branches all over China. It employs some 3000 people, about 100 of which are at the Beijing headquarters. It is a member of the All China Sports Federation, and supervised by the Commission for Sports and Physical Education, an official government organ.
CIST is heavily involved in organizing international sports events, and is extremely enthusiastic about promoting unicycling. IN addition to being the organizer of Unicon X, they are planning the Asia Unicycle Championships, probably to be held in Japan in the summer of 1999, and are involved in exchanges programs for unicyclists.
