Enjoying life through exercise

By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-08 09:11

Government officials usually take to sport because they are the most aware of the benefits of physical fitness, says Shao. Factory workers engaged in sport either as recreation or as a means to keep fit.

About 5 percent of the urban people - the relatively well-off, including managers, and those working for commercial or tertiary industries - join health clubs to keep fit, according to the survey. The proportion of those who pay to exercise is the highest among private entrepreneurs group, with 11 percent of them doing so. But they are the most inconsistent group when it comes to workouts, too, because of their busy schedule.

Physical exercise, however, is not a form of recreation for urban residents who just about manage to meet their needs, nor is it for farmers and migrant workers in cities. "We always think doing household chores and farming is working out. It's weird for us to think that a bit of additional exercise will help with our fitness," says Fang Dayue, a man in his 40s in a village in Anhui province. That is why fitness centers are a craze only in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Up to 70 percent of Beijing residents take part in sport, according to official data, whereas the national figure is only 33 percent. Besides, a majority of the middle-aged and old people exercise because they have been advised by physicians to do so to fight chronic illnesses.

The initial results of the latest national physical fitness monitoring project, released by the General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) in 2006, show that the traditional "water towns" of Shanghai and Jiangsu province have more robust people than the country's tough northeast or the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The study is carried out every five years to track the development of people's health and physical prowess in different regions.

According to the GASC, the municipal and provincial governments on the east coast sponsor more advanced sports and fitness programs and thus the average resident in that region are fitter. The difference, however, reveals unbalanced distribution of sports resources in east and west, urban and rural areas, as well as major and small cities.

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