BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- China's national women's volleyball team has assembled in Beijing to prepare for the upcoming 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in Japan, aiming to claim its third trophy in this top-class competition.

The FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship 2018 Japan will start on September 29. During the tournament, 24 teams from 5 continents will compete against each other in 103 matches, hoping to be crowned champion on October 20.

The participating teams are divided into 4 groups after the drawing of lots, six in each. After the first round played in a round-robin system in four different cities, top four teams of each group will advance to the second round.

China was drawn into Group B together with Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Canada and Cuba, who will be the rival of China in the opener on September 29 in Sapporo. It is a tough group for the Chinese team and to make it harder, if China manages to go into the second round, it will face top four teams from Group C which comprises of the United States, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Azerbaijan and Trinidad & Tobago.

But the good news is that key player Zhang Changning has recovered from injuries to make the powerful and loved trio with Zhu Ting, Yuan Xinyue complete. With a strenghted squad, China hopes to yield better results after securing a third-place in the Volleyball Nations League finals in Nanjing earlier this month.