For many around the world, India is inseparable from yoga, which is gaining popularity in China. A teacher from the south Asian country is trying to promote cultural exchanges through the ancient and popular activity. CGTN's Yang Jinghao has the story.

It's been more than two years since Yatindra Dutt Amoli began teaching yoga in Yunnan Minzu University in the city of Kunming. The 36-year-old is trying to impart systematic knowledge of the ancient activity to Chinese students in a different way.

YATINDRA DUTT AMOLI YOGA TEACHER "Before we came here, we saw that people were more focused on the Asana practice. The teachers were not making it clear that yoga is not only about practice, yoga is also philosophy, yoga is also a way of life."

As one of the first foreign teachers at the university's yoga college co-founded with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Amoli describes his early days in China as "difficult" due to the wild differences on culture and lifestyle. His growing interest in China resulted in him staying in the country, longer than he had originally planned. He has integrated philosophy from China's Taoism, Confucianism, and Tai Chi into his classes, to help his students better understand yoga.

YANG JINGHAO KUNMING "Yoga is usually compared with China's Tai Chi. For Amoli, the two widely practiced activities represent two different cultures, while they also sharing many similarities."

Amoli compares Tai Chi to "moving meditation". He says yoga and Tai Chi may be different in their process, but they both seek harmony between human beings and nature.

YATINDRA DUTT AMOLI YOGA TEACHER "This is cultural root. Yoga is from our cultural root and Tai chi is from your cultural root. If we communicate through the two mediums, these are very soft skills, they're learning from each other. I mean in this way, we can cooperate more, even we can go farther than cultural issues."

The university has also established a college specialized in Tai Chi and are sending teachers overseas including India for exchange.

LANG GONGXUN, VICE DEAN INDIA-CHINA YOGA COLLEGE, YUNNAN MINZU UNIVERSITY "Both yoga and Tai Chi are the embodiment of the wisdom of the East. They're good media to promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries and we universities can play an active role in this regard."

He's gotten used to life here, and Amoli says he wants to continue his stay in China to learn more about the country. He says he wants to find more ways to bring the two cultures together.

YATINDRA DUTT AMOLI YOGA TEACHER "By borders, we can say that you are Chinese, I am Indian. But as a human being, we're all the same. Our lifestyles are quite rich, culture is quite rich. So we have to understand each other."

Amoli is devoting himself to learning Chinese. He says when he goes back to India or travels to other countries, he would like to tell people about other Chinese cultural treasures. Yang Jinghao, CGTN, Kunming, Yunnan Province.