One of the world's most popular and trending sports landed in one of China's most picturesque destinations to promote a greener lifestyle.

L'E?tape Chengjiang by Tour de France welcomed nearly 2,000 cycling lovers on Sunday to circle the Fuxian Lake, one of China's cleanest and purest waters in the southwest of the country, to experience a tough competition but in a heaven-like surrounding.

Chengjiang county, where the lake is located, hopes to use the opportunity to further develop a world-class destination combining the local green nature and the green lifestyle of cycling.

Jiang Ping, deputy Party secretary of Yunan Provincial Energy Investment Group Co Ltd (YEIG), said the group is going to make further foray into the sport and health area using the cooperation with the Tour de France as the beginning.

"YEIG is an open and green group and what we are focusing on is also shared by Tour de France and the sport," said Jiang.

The group is one of the main forces in the provincial campaign of "green energy brand" and implementing green energy internationalization strategy in the Southeast Asian neighboring province. Natural gas and new energy vehicle are two of the major business of group.

Dubbed as China's highland Maldives, the Fuxian Lake scenic spot is located above 1,700 meters with various sceneries like fields and gardens, wet land and mountain and was listed as one of CNN's top 10 recommended tour destinations in 2018.

Full distance cyclists of race (115 km) climbed from an elevation of 1,416 meters to 2,123 meters across a nearly 28 km race while overcoming altitude sickness and ever-changing weather. It was the toughest L'Etape race in the world this year.

Kathy Zhou, general manager of Activation Group, said the organizer is expected to chart more L'Etape China routes in nature-rich destinations in other parts of the country to spread the sport and lifestyle to more Chinese amateur riders.

Activation Group, which introduced Tour de France in 2017, was cautious about its role in the whole industry. "To grow a sport is more than just to organize a competition in a single day. We need to grow the culture of the sport around the year as a lifestyle," said Zhou.