Hopes pinned on championships to boost city

Dongguan, the host city for the 2015 Sudirman Cup, is pinning its hopes on the international badminton event to boost its sports development, elevate the city image and fortify exchanges and cooperation with countries and regions along the Maritime Silk Road.

"As one of the world's top three badminton events, the Sudirman Cup will bring the world's top badminton stars to Dongguan, which together with the promotional campaigns, will definitely invigorate locals' greater enthusiasm for badminton and make the atmosphere stronger for badminton and sports in general," said Yuan Baocheng, mayor of Dongguan and director of the event's organizing committee.

"The event is also expected to help the city strengthen exchanges and cooperation with countries and regions along the Maritime Silk Road," said Yuan, who added that badminton's popularity in Asia, especially in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, is a key factor in boosting exchanges.

"We hope the championships will at the same time arouse greater global attention to Dongguan so that people worldwide will have a better idea of the city," Yuan said.

The city government organized several media tours for the 304 journalists from 110 media outlets worldwide who registered for the sports event.

The city government said the tours will allow journalists to experience first hand the city's booming manufacturing industry and promising prospects, rich tourism resources and well-developed sports facilities.

Several badminton players who visited the city for the first time gave it a "thumbs up" for different reasons.

Liliyana Natsir from Indonesia said she was excited to see the impressive stadium for the matches in Dongguan, while Gronya Jasmine from Australia described the city as "very modern".

Lee Yong Dae from South Korea said he was surprised to find that Dongguan was so clean.

"The city is pleasing to me and I will try some local delicacies if I have the chance," he said.

Luo Guohui, a Chinese player-turned head coach of the Seychelles team, said the opening ceremony on May 8 left a deep impression on him.

"It was grandiose and it made me sense the strong atmosphere of Dongguan's sports and culture," he said. "The local people's passion for badminton was obvious."

Dongguan is a key manufacturing city and a major economic powerhouse of South China's Guangdong province. The city's GDP hit 588.12 billion yuan ($94.8 billion) in 2014 and foreign trade was $162.53 billion in the same year, up 7.8 percent and 6.2 percent from 2013, according to official statistics.

To date, foreign businesses from more than 40 countries and regions have set up about 11,000 projects in the city, with their capital input topping out at $80 billion. These include 87 projects funded by 49 of the world's top 500 consortia.

Dongguan has long attached great importance to developing sports and has outpaced many other cities in China.

With 13,247 sports facilities of varied types covering an area of 18.62 million square meters, the city is reputed as the nation's hometown for swimming, weightlifting, dragon boat racing and lion dancing. It is also known as the nation's cradle for snooker champions and China's basketball city.

Dongguan currently has more than 1,500 badminton courts, more than 500 corporate badminton teams and hundreds of badminton enthusiast groups. More than 500,000 people play badminton regularly, according to official statistics.

Dongguan is the only city in China that has two China Basketball Association teams.

The United Nations Environment Program named Dongguan as an international garden city and it has a forest coverage rate of about 40 percent.

The city is one of China's popular travel destinations and has several sites of historical interest, scenic spots and abundant resources for industrial tours.

zhanlisheng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/12/2015 page7)