The Beijing Australian Rules Football Club (BARFC) was founded in 2003. After a modest beginning, the club took off in 2006 with matches against their Shanghai counterparts, the Shanghai Tigers. In 2007, the club developed the Sishen Bombers, made up of 100-percent Chinese players. BARFC is home to the Beijing Bombers men's AFL team, and the women's team, the Beijing Bombshells.

A prudent decision was made a few years ago to base an AFL development officer in China. Andrew Sawitsch went on a strong recruitment drive at Chinese universities to identify talent and develop the potential of these players. Many players who will represent China in Australia at the International Cup in August are from the Beijing Sport University.

The two-day camp in Tianjin was run by two Australians who have a vision for AFL in China. They selected 30 players for the Chinese national side. The team will travel to Melbourne at the end of August for the 2008 International Cup, and will compete against other so-called "developing nations" in the sport. That means China won't have to go head to head against the pioneers of AFL, instead they'll be up against stiff competition from other nations who are also newcomers to the sport, such as Finland and Nauru.

With the booming Chinese economy and growing personal affluence, many businesses are trying to penetrate the massive Chinese market. In a sporting sense, AFL is no exception. The league's Australian administrators have a vision of spreading AFL far beyond its homeland. There are already a number of national sides and expat teams across Asia, the United States and Europe. In China, AFL appears to be gaining some momentum.

Far from just being popular in China, AFL is played across Asia. The China Reds, a combination of expat players from Beijing and Shanghai, recently competed in a tournament in Manila, the Philippines. Later this year, Singapore will host the Asian Championships. Official figures show that 34,000 people now play in structured competitions across the globe, and more than 30 structured leagues exist. AFL is now far from restricted to just Australia-it's played in over 30 countries worldwide.

AFL in China has stretched beyond Beijing. Aside from Beijing Sport University and BARFC, the 46 players vying for selection at the camp in Tianjin were from Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin Institute of Electronics, Tianjin Nankai University and Suzhou Canglang District Education Commission.

As for the China's team heading for Australia, it will be interesting to see how they perform. Coach Darryl Hoffman, himself a former player, said the performances at the selection camp in Tianjin were "pleasing."

"It certainly was an eye opener, and we were really impressed with what we saw," he said. Hoffman expects the Chinese team's fitness to be a real advantage during the tournament.

Representing your country doesn't come easy. When the players began the selection camp in Tianjin, they were treated to a 3-km running trial to sort the men from the boys. By all accounts, by the end of the weekend, the players were exhausted-but it's a small price to pay when the stakes are so high. To become a member of the first-ever Chinese national team