Midweek matches appeal to soccer fans at ClubFootball

If New York is famously known as a "melting pot" of nationalities, Beijing must surely be a hotpot, simmering nicely with people from all corners of the earth.

One way to observe the truth of this is regarding sports, particularly football, still (despite the Chinese NBA craze) the most popular sport in the world. The recent South African World Cup might have been the ultimate exemplar of international footballing, but Beijing's ClubFootball is a fine example of this most international of sports crossing national boundaries.

Mid-week, should you venture into Chaoyang Park after 7 pm, you can find a veritable United Nations of footballers slugging it out under the floodlights and competing on the park's eight 5-a-side pitches.