Gourt Home::Gourt :: Sport in China
Wlqxjrk_small.jpg|frame|Wang Liqin winning a forehand drive against Jörg Rosskopf. Wlqxjrk.gif.]]
Sport in China refers to the sports played in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. The sports played in China include basketball, football, table tennis, badminton, and volleyball. Increasingly, western sports such as golf are becoming more popular.
Badminton
Badminton is a popular sport in China. Famous Chinese badminton players include Cheng Shao-Chieh, Zhang Ning, Huang Sui and Tsai Chia-Hsin.
Baseball
The China Baseball League was founded in 2002.
Basketball
The Chinese Basketball Association is the premier professional basketball league in the People's Republic of China. It began in 1995. The Chinese University Basketball Association is the most competitive and popular college basketball competition in China. There is also the Chinese Basketball League.
Chinese youths are becoming more keen on playing basketball, especially in urban centres with limited space and grass areas. The NBA has a huge following among Chinese youths, with basketball Yao Ming being the idol of many.
Football
Football has been one of the most well supported sports in China ever since it was introduced in the 1900s. There is, in fact, evidence that soccer was first played in China around 1000 AD, leading many historians to believe that the popular sport originated from China*. From 1994 to 2004, the top flight of professional football was "Jia A". The current Chinese Football Association was founded in the People's Republic of China after 1949. Its headquarters is located in Beijing. The Chinese Super League is the premier football league in China, which was founded in 2004.
The women's national team has finished second at both the World Championships and the Olympic Games, whereas the men's national team qualified to the Football World Cup in 2002.
In 2004, FIFA officially acknowledged China as the birthplace of football, when the game of cuju was played over 2000 years ago.
Golf
Golf tournaments in China include the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, TCL Classic in Sanya on Hainan island, the Volvo China Open and the BMW Asian Open, played in the PRC after 2004. The most successful Chinese golfer has been Zhang Lian-Wei. The Mission Hills Golf Club golf course at Guanlan in Shenzen is said to be the world's largest.
Grand Prix
The Chinese Grand Prix is a Formula 1 event held at the Shanghai International Circuit. See 2004 Chinese Grand Prix and 2005 Chinese Grand Prix.
Ice hockey
The Chinese national women's ice hockey team is controlled by the Chinese Ice Hockey Association, and highly ranked in world competition.
Martial arts
Hundreds of different styles of Chinese martial arts have developed over the past two thousand years, many distinctive styles with their own sets of techniques and ideas. hundreds of different styles and schools of Wushu still exist in China, but generally they can be divided into a few distinct branches, including Northern and Southern Shaolin-style Wushu. There are also Buddhist, Daoist and Muslim styles.
Performance at international games
China has also done well in recent Olympic Games, particularly the summer games, in 2004 China was second in the gold medal tally, and third in total medals with 63 (32 gold, 17 silver and 14 bronze). For details see China at the Olympics. Beijing is set to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. In the Winter Olympics, China has performed well in speed skating and figure skating. The Chinese national women's ice hockey team is highly ranked in world competitions.
China also participated in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. It was eliminated after losing its first three games.
Table tennis
乒乓球 (Ping Pang Qiu) is the official name for the sport of table tennis in China. Apart from the national representative team, the table tennis community in China continues to produce many world-class players, and this depth of skill allows the country to continue dominating recent world titles after a short break during the 1990s. Wang Liqin is currently one of the highest-ranked Chinese table tennis players, and the highest-ranked player in the world. Deng Yaping is regarded by many as one of the greatest table tennis player of all time. The sport played an important role in China's international relationships; in April 1972, the US Table Tennis team were invited to visit China, an event later called Ping Pong Diplomacy.
Dragon boat racing
See Dragon boat racing
See also
"Sport in China"