Rural female football players participate in the first Wind Chasing League Finals in Hangzhou on April 16. [Photo/hangzhou2022.cn]

First time traveling by plane. First time visiting a big city like Hangzhou. First time participating in a national football competition. First time meeting well-known international female football player Wang Shuang.

The "Wind-chasing Girls", the rural female football players participating in the first Wind Chasing League Finals in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, experienced so many firsts on Sunday during their dream trip to the city that will be hosting the upcoming Asian Games, local media reported.

The champion team from Jingwai Mingde Primary School in Xuanwei city in Southwest China's Yunnan province also won tickets to the Asian Games women's football competition, turning another dream of theirs into a reality.

As the first national rural campus women's football league, the "Chasing Wind League" attracted 35 rural campus women's football teams from across the country to participate. Six teams from the provinces of Guizhou, Jiangxi, Hubei, Anhui, and Yunnan, as well as Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, stood out and competed at the stadium of this year's Asian Games football match in Hangzhou - the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium.

"I am very happy to watch them play football. I remember what I was like when I was a child, working hard for my dreams every day. But I didn't have that kind of fortune to play on such a large, high-quality field," said Wang Shuang, who started playing football in second grade. "Now many children start playing football at a younger age, and I hope that more children can participate in the sport," she said.

With the promotion of the Ant Charity Foundation and China Youth Development Foundation, the "Chasing Wind Project" rural campus women's football support project has directly funded 70 girls' soccer teams at rural elementary schools in 23 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the country.

Rural female football players participate in the first Wind Chasing League Finals in Hangzhou on April 16. [Photo/hangzhou2022.cn]