Village arena a beacon for basketball fans

Whenever there is a Lizhi Basketball Club game, the arena in Zhonghe village in Guyuan city, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, is filled to capacity with cheering fans.

Besides being home to the club, the arena also hosts Village Basketball Association games and is one of the main venues for the farmers' basketball invitational tournaments, in which teams from Ningxia and the provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu compete.

While helping to popularize basketball in the village, located in the city's Yuanzhou district, the facility has also become a place where Zhonghe residents and people from neighboring villages can come relax and exercise, stoking locals' passion for fitness and sports.

Inside, the arena has a 1,700-square-meter standard basketball court, with 12 rows of bleacher seats on all four sides. It also features a table-tennis area, badminton courts, billiards, chess and card rooms, and children's entertainment facilities. People can enjoy the activities free of charge.

The outdoor venues include a basketball court, plastic running tracks and approximately 500 square meters of ancillary facilities of canteens, tea houses and dormitories for students training with the Lizhi club.

The wealthy Ma family, who lives in Zhonghe, was responsible for the arena's construction and covers its operational costs.

"Constructing a basketball arena out of our own pocket was a unanimous decision made by three generations of my family, including my father Ma Zhili and son Ma Xiaolong," said Ma Guanghui.

Ma Guanghui and his father, who attained their wealth by taking on regional construction projects in the 1990s, decided to build the arena in 2020 after they learned that the village had more than a dozen national-level athletes and a large number of college students who were competing in the China University Basketball Association.

Construction costs for the arena, which opened in 2022, exceeded 6.4 million yuan ($880,000).

"Influenced by the growing number of CUBA basketball players from the village, more children began playing basketball, and we felt that constructing a good basketball venue would be beneficial for the villagers," Ma Guanghui said. He said his father, Ma Zhili, is also a basketball fan.

When Ma Zhili was young, he often played basketball on shabby courts with other villagers in his spare time. Back then, they had to set up wooden baskets in the fields to play, Ma Zhili said.

"Now, many surrounding villagers and even people from other counties come to our village to play basketball and exercise since the new gym was built," he said.

Inspired by his father, Ma Guanghui also loves playing basketball, as does his son Ma Xiaolong, who became a basketball coach after he graduated from the Ningxia Vocational College of Sports years ago.

It was Ma Xiaolong who established the Lizhi Basketball Club in 2021 to train local villagers who wanted to learn how to play. Besides Ma, the club has six other coaches and annually organizes weekend and summer training camps.

It has trained 410 students, including 150 students from his village. The club has also organized eight major basketball events and more than 100 smaller ones over the years.

Ma Bowen, a local villager, said since the arena was built, Zhonghe can organize basketball competitions any time.

"The arena and training camps also share the responsibility of taking care of children for many villagers and have also stimulated their interest in playing basketball," he said.

"Particularly during summer vacation, children used to play with their mobile phones while the adults were busy with farming work."

The arena has not only become an ideal place to play basketball and exercise, but also generates income for vendors in the area nearby.

According to incomplete statistics, the combined revenue of restaurants and convenience stores in Zhonghe increased by more than 500,000 yuan in the first eight months of the arena's operation.

Ma Xiaolong said people who visit the arena include breeders, construction workers, students and entrepreneurs.