Searches for frisbee surged 17-fold during the first three months of this year on Xiaohongshu, as compared with the same period last year, the social media platform reports. The topic of frisbee has attracted more than 42.4 million views on the platform.

Those figures have continued to grow over the following months.

On July 7, the General Administration of Sports has announced the first Chinese Frisbee League, which is planned for August.

"Frisbee has been widely enjoyed by the public and has developed rapidly in recent years," says the administration's announcement of the league's formation.

The announcement points out that the sport has become an important part of national fitness activities.

"Most of our clients are white-collar workers, around 30," says Sun Dawei, a former gym trainer who co-established The North frisbee club with a friend in April.

He practiced frisbee back in Tianjin University of Sport in 2011 and, between 2014 and 19, won top prizes at multiple frisbee competitions in Shanghai, Nanjing of Jiangsu province, Beijing and Xiamen of Fujian province.

"There must have been only about 100 people playing professionally, because I saw the same faces all the time at those matches," he recalls.