Shanghai offers free public access to nearly 1,000 facilities for national fitness day
A woman tries out archery at a sports promotion event in downtown Shanghai.
Nearly 1,000 public sports facilities in Shanghai were open to the public for free on Tuesday, which marks the 15th National Fitness Day.
This week is also the city's first "Sports Promotion Week." During the period from August 5 to 13, Shanghai will hold more than 200 offline fitness guidance services and provide over 3,000 free entries to sports venues to the public.
Journalists arrived at the Shanghai Jing'an Sports Center at 9am, where the comprehensive sports hall had 20 badminton courts filled with people exercising and cheering.
"We made a reservation for today's court in advance on the mini-program. We usually play badminton outdoors, but we feel great today playing on the free indoor court," said an elderly woman surnamed Zhang, 57, who fell in love with badminton when she was still a student.
"It is only about being healthy and happy, not winning or losing. Also, we are very strict about foul calls to avoid injuries."
At the Luwan Sports Center football field, Lin Zhirong, coach of the Shanghai Huangpu Elderly Football Team, organized his own team's match.
The team, whose members are between 50 and 78 years old, has been established for nearly 20 years.
"We play football every Tuesday morning, and play two football matches every year. Many elderly people even come from far away to join us playing football together," said Lin Zhirong.
Cai Hua, director of the Luwan Sports Center, said that in addition to free access to badminton, table tennis, bowling, tennis, and running tracks on National Fitness Day, the center also provides free facilities every Tuesday and on the 5th of each month.
