The push for polo

The equestrian industry will create jobs and infrastructure, say big-money players in the 'Sport of Kings'.

First-time visitors to China recently might be forgiven for thinking they'd landed somewhere else by mistake, somewhere like Monte Carlo or Saratoga, New York. As the summer heat broke, the Beijing calendar was suddenly chock-full of polo, with a string of September tournaments in the capital and a five-day international meet in Tianjin during October's National Day holiday week.

The "sport of kings" was once unimaginable in New China, but a lot of things have changed since the reform and opening-up led by Deng Xiaoping began in 1979.