Immediately to the northwest of Beijing, the Great Wall of China snakes its way up and down, east and west, over jagged small mountains. Over a pass, the highway drops into the grasslands, where on Saturday my family and I wended our way along a dirt road lined with towering trees in full leaf-changing display.

At the end was the Sunny Time Polo Club.

An entrepreneur, James Wang, has brought polo to China, hoping to draw on the aura of wealth and exclusivity associated with what is known as “the game of kings.”

On a clear autumnal afternoon, as a Chinese team awaited a match with a team from India, Brazil, Chile and the U.S., an American player, Sohail Quraeshi, suggested that the sport is actually returning to its origins.

“Polo originated in China, went over the Silk Road to what is now Pakistan, was first discovered by the British in a little place in the Himalayas called Chitral, and then taken to India,” Quraeshi told guests on the sidelines. “Now, it’s an honor to play back in the capital, Beijing.”

On the dais were the ambassadors of Pakistan, Chile and Argentina, and various officials from the Chinese sports and equestrian associations.

Sunny Time isn’t exactly the Ascot Park Polo Club in the English countryside, where ladies wear large hats. After all, off to one end of the pitch were the Port-a-Potties for the guests. We sipped mineral water, not champagne.

Chinese performers did a dragon dance, and Muslim women dressed in Silk Road finery lined the pitch.

As to whether polo was actually invented in China, quick research shows some dispute.

An Ascot Park website says: “Polo is thought to have originated in China and Persia around 2,000 years ago. The name of the game may well come from the word ‘pholo’ meaning 'ball' or 'ballgame' in the Balti language of Tibet.”

Another website says “no one knows where or when stick first met ball after the horse was domesticated by the ancient Iranian (Aryan) tribes of Central Asia.”

Polo was an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1939 but today is played professionally in only Argentina, England, Pakistan, India, and the United States. Maybe China will soon add to that list.