China has nominated Tai Chi to be included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, with the final decision to be expected later this year, according to a report from China Daily.

The application, submitted by Wenxian County of Henan Province, has been in the making since 2006, when the county drew up its first national intangible heritage list and included Tai Chi, said Zheng Aizhen, chairman of the Wenxian committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top policy advisory body.

China’s first attempt in getting the UNESCO status for Tai Chi was made in 2008, as one of the 35 on China’s list that year. But it was withdrawn after an evaluation deemed it “too vague,” according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The rules were changed the next year, which allows each country to make only nominations each year. China nominated Peking Opera and acupuncture, with both successfully put onto the list.

The latest attempt came amid speculations that South Korea and Japan have also been planning to make similar nominations.

According to Chen Xiaowang, a Tai Chi master, the history of the martial art could be traced back to the mid-17th Century, when it was created by a man named Chen Wangting.

Zheng said that in order to make Tai Chi to the list this year, they have collected a lot of materials while inviting masters and experts to discuss its relevant cultures during the past decade.

For the residents of Chen Jiagou, the birthplace of Tai Chi, their decade-long dream of disseminating the Chinese culture to the rest of the world may finally be fulfilled.