Sports

The Physical Health Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted in 1995. In the same year, the State Council promulgated the Outline of Nationwide Physical Fitness Program, followed by a series of rules and regulations. A survey released by the State Physical Culture Administration indicates that at present nearly 40 percent of the total population aged between 7 and 70 take exercise and more than 60 percent of urban residents go to sports clubs for physical fitness activities. By the end of 2005, 37 percent of China's total population had taken part in regular physical exercise, and over 95 percent of students reached the National Physical Exercise Standard.

Aiming to improve the health and the physical condition of the general population, the Nationwide Physical Fitness Program, with an emphasis on young people and children, encourages everyone to engage in at least one sport activity every day, learn at least two ways of keeping fit and have a health examination every year.

In this 15-year-long program, the government aims at building a sports and fitness service system for the general public. There are more than 850,000 gymnasiums and stadiums across China at present, most of them open to and widely used by the general public. Outdoor fitness centers have been installed in urban communities, public parks, squares, roadside and other convenient locations, equipped with fitness equipment and facilities in various forms.

The government has stipulated that 60 percent of the proceeds from the sports lottery must go to the Nationwide Physical Fitness Program. Making use of the lottery proceeds, the State Physical Culture Administration had constructed about 6,000 nationwide physical fitness projects throughout rural areas by the end of 2005. Starting from 2001, the Administration earmarked lottery money as pilot funds to build "China Sports Lottery Nationwide Physical Fitness Centers" as pilot projects in 31 large and medium-sized cities throughout China, amongst them Dalian, Beijing and Changchun. Some are already in use.

Meanwhile, some 196 million yuan of sports lottery proceeds were used to construct public sporting facilities in China's less-developed western areas and the Three Gorges region of the Yangtze River, benefiting 101 counties and towns.

With the flourishing of nationwide fitness activities, people's attitudes have also undergone great change. In many large and medium-sized cities, spending money in the pursuit of good health has become trendy. Some of the newly emerging sports, including rock climbing, horsemanship, bungee jumping, bowling, skateboarding, women's boxing, shuffle board, taekwondo and golf are particularly popular among the young. At the end of 2003, construction work was started on China's first snow golf course in A'er Mountain, Inner Mongolia. This project, representing an investment of about 1 billion yuan, will be the sixth snow golf course in the world.

The Nationwide Physical Fitness Program has set targets that, by 2010, more than 40 percent of China's population will participate in regular physical exercise, there will be a clear improvement in the national physique and a major increase in the number of fitness sites so as to satisfy people's keep-fit needs.

The promotion of sport activities has increasingly improved the national physique and level of health. People are living longer than ever and the old adage "it is rare for a person to live to the age of seventy" is now obsolete, since reaching that age is now commonplace. The present average life expectancy of China's population is 71.95 years, approaching the level of moderately developed countries.

In order to monitor the national physique, the government has carried out large-scale studies on the physique of students since 1979, and of adults since 1993, obtaining a wealth of detailed information. The latest survey of the national physique, which ended in 2001, took three years and covered 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, making it China's largest ever in terms of scale and population numbers. The survey showed a great improvement in the growth of children and teenagers in China's rural areas, every index showing an average rate of increase surpassing that of their peer groups in cities. But the survey also revealed some grounds for concern. Chinese people's physical faculties show a clear drop after they turn 40. In cities, obesity poses a big threat to the health of children and teenagers, and overweight is also very common among adults. The health of women in rural areas is far from satisfactory. Based on the survey findings, government departments continuously study methods of keeping fit, set new ways and standards for different age groups and strengthen coaching at community level. The second survey of the national physique was completed in 2005 and the report will be released in 2006.

 

Professionalization

Prior to 1990s, sport in China, as in parts of Eastern Europe, was government funded, not market oriented. Some excellent athletes quit at the height of their careers because they were uncertain about life post retirement from sport. The situation began to change in 1994 when Chinese soccer became the first sport to take the professionalization road, and in its wake similar reforms were carried out in basketball, volleyball, table tennis and Go. The process brought with it prosperity; sport associations became profit-generating entities and a club system came into being; professional leagues formed, improving China's sports environment; and commercial management systems took shape. The professionalization of sports has encouraged the emergence of a sports management market and business-structured systems. Sports clubs operations now cover ticket sales, advertising, club transfers, commercial matches, television broadcasting and other commercial activities.

Another achievement of the reform is that some Chinese athletes have joined foreign professional leagues. For instance, basketball star Yao Ming joined the American NBA, whilst Yang Chen and Sun Jihai play in European soccer leagues.

 

The Road to Olympics

In the early 20th century, to become a member of the Olympic family was only a dream for the Chinese. Before the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, Chinese athletes had participated in three Olympic Games but had returned empty-handed. Since 1949, China has participated in six summer and eight winter Olympics, winning 112 gold medals in summer Olympics. At the Los Angeles, Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics, China came fourth in the gold medals table, and second at the Athens Olympics.

In 1979 China resumed its legitimate membership of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In 1981 He Zhenliang was elected an IOC member, marking a new period in the relations between China and the Olympics. From then on, Chinese sports circles started to popularize and promote the Olympics. An important part of their work was to have the Chinese people, representing one fifth of the world's population, share the honor and joy of hosting the Olympic Games, thus reflecting the Olympic principle of inclusivity. In July 2001, Beijing finally succeeded in its bid to bring the 2008 Olympic Games to its ancient capital with a history of 3,000 years.

The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOOC), established at the end of 2001, set the themes for the 2008 Games as "Green Olympics," "High-tech Olympics" and "Humanistic Olympics." Since 2003, 30 Olympic venues have been started, following public bidding for their design and construction. Seven venues, including the National Stadium and the National Swimming Center, are of exquisite and ingenuous design, ushering in a new period of poetic architecture for Beijing. The centerpiece of the 2008 Games will be the "Birds Nest" National Stadium. With a capacity of 100,000 spectators, the stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies as well as track-and-field events.

According to the budget released by BOOC in September 2003, construction of the venues will cost about US$2 billion and the financing system framework has been determined. Beijing will spend 180 billion yuan on infrastructure construction, much of the expenditure devoted to 142 large-scale projects including high-speed transportation networks, environmental improvements and creation of information systems. Another plan is to exploit the experience of preparing and hosting the 2008 Olympics to make Beijing into an international center for sport.

 

 

 

On November 11, 2005, the official mascots of the Beijing Olympics made their debut. The mascots consist of five "Fuwa" lucky dolls, namely Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini, whose individual names link to sound like the expression "Beijing huanying ni" (welcome to Beijing). Their shapes resemble those of the Olympic flame, the panda, the Tibetan antelope, swallow and fish respectively, and each one takes a different color of the Olympic Rings red, orange, blue, green and black.