Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a better sports environment for kids across China after watching some children playing basketball and jumping rope during his visit to a primary school in the capital, Beijing, on Wednesday ahead of International Children's Day, which falls on June 1.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, extended festival greetings to children across the country while stressing the importance of the all-round development of children. He urged families, schools and society as a whole to create more conditions for the kids to "build up their bodies."

At Beijing Yuying School, Xi emphasized the importance of children's sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility and work skills. He said he hopes the children in the new era could "have their own dream and goal," "be eager to learn knowledge and diligent," and "be kind and innovative."

The Chinese president said he's happy to meet the kids, urging a continuous push on the country's "double reduction policy," an educational reform policy that limits schoolwork outside of the classroom in China.

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