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Finding a place to exercise
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Han Ximin\;
QIAO HONG, director of the Mass Sports Department of the Shenzhen Sports Development Centre, last week received a letter of complaint concerning a dispute between Lianhuabei Housing Estate and Shenzhen Central Hospital over a basketball court.\;
Some residents wanted to play basketball in the hospital's court, but were thrown out by the hospital's security guards. The residents felt they were unfairly treated. As taxpayers, they believe they have the right to enjoy the sports facilities paid for by the government.
Though a small case, Qiao said it was difficult to resolve the dispute. Betraying a hint of embarrassment, he told Shenzhen Daily that his efforts were dismissed by the hospital side, which gave an excuse that the basketball playing disturbed its patients.\;
Overall situation\;
The shortage of public sports facilities has become the focus of increasing concern in recent years, as the standard of living has improved and the demand for health and recreation facilities has grown. \;
During the second session of the Third Municipal People's Congress earlier this year, over 1,00 deputies including Wu Liming and Chen Guoquan forwarded 13 motions in total, calling for more sports facilities for the public.\;
"Though great achievements have been made in developing more recreation and sports facilities, it still lags far behind the city's economic development and the demands of its citizens," said Qiao.
Shenzhen's per capita area for sports is only 0.2 sqm, two thirds of the national average, and less than one quarter of that of Shanghai. \;
Generally speaking, the construction of sports facilities is usually funded by government. Unfortunately, the planning and design are often far from satisfactory.\;
According to the Outline of Nationwide Body-building Plan, a city with 1-2 million people must have a gymnasium, a sports field and a swimming and diving pool. With a population of over four million, Shenzhen should have two to four gyms, sports fields and swimming and diving pools. \;
Shenzhen finished construction of Shenzhen Stadium and Shenzhen Sports Field in 1996 and a swimming pool is expected to be finished in April, 2002, six years after the stadium, far below the standard stipulated by the outline.
"The sports facilities at district and township levels are basically nonexistent in Shenzhen," said Qiao.
As the city's most important sports facilities, Shenzhen Stadium's first task is to accommodate big sports events. At the same time, it is not open to the general public. The city's football and basketball players have to make do on the stadium's 7,000-sqm parking lot on weekends.
There is a supplemental sports field near Shenzhen Stadium which is mainly used for athletic training. Someone once suggested that resident could be allowed to use the track and field with an admission of five yuan. But the suggestion was rejected for fear that the facilities would be seriously damaged. It seems highly unlikely that the stadium's facilities will ever be opened to the public.\;
Housing estates and hotels
Some hotels like the Wuzhou Guesthouse and Sea View Hotel have opened their swimming pools, tennis courts and gyms to the public but the charges are very high. The Sunshine Hotel only allows members and guests access to its swimming pool, table tennis facilities and miniature golf course.\;
Increasing numbers of Shenzheners are eager to work out near their homes at low rates, or even for free. It is not practical for citizens to work out at a sport centre miles away or in a hotel. "Citizens need convenient sport facilities in their neighbourhood," said Qiao. Unfortunately this basic need has been overlooked by housing estate designers and developers.
"The Yuanling Housing Estate, which has tens of thousands of residents, has no place to work out. They are lucky to have Lychee Park nearby. The sports facilities in old housing estates like Hongli, Huaxin and Ludancun are poor," said Qiao.\;
The government made construction of recreation places and sports facilities in government-subsidized housing projects compulsory when the Lianhua'ercun Housing Estate was under construction in 1991.
However, there are no specific rules governing neighbourhood recreation and sports facilities. Developers often ditch the originally designed recreation and sports sites, which they promised to prospective home buyers, and build more apartments instead.\;
Meilinyicun Housing Estate is at present the largest government-subsidized housing area in the city with 30,000 residents. It was considered a model project when its first residents moved in in 1998. But it only has one swimming pool available; the originally planned basketball, tennis, badminton courts and a community activity centre still exist only on paper.
The provisional regulation of 1986 stipulates that the per capita public sport area is 0.3 sqm, which means the model housing estate established in 1998 is below the standard of 1986.
Huang, a retired man who lives in Building No 11 in Meilinyicun, said he usually does his morning exercises in the parking lot -- if there is enough space.\;
Parks and schools\;
Wang Tie, who lives in Shangmeilin, is often frustrated by requests of his eight-year-old kid to play outside at weekends. There is no park or children's centre in his neighbourhood. During International Children's Day, he walked around the city's parks and found the public sports facilities were inadequate.\;
"At present, the parks stress the environment and ignore the construction of public sports facilities, which are badly needed by residents," said Wang.
Donghu Park is comparatively sufficient in terms of sports facilities. There are tennis courts, basketball courts and sports facilities like horizontal bars, parallel bars and other outdoor facilities. Though the charge is 30 yuan per hour in the daytime and 40 yuan at night, many people drive to the park on weekends and have to wait their turn to use the outdoor facilities.
As existing facilities become overwhelmed, many workout centres are not suitable for ordinary citizens because of their high rates. Many deputies to the second Session of the third Shenzhen People's Congress suggested a compromise: to open schools' sports facilities to the public on weekends or general holidays. The suggestion seemed to make sense. In a city crying out for places to exercise, school recreational facilities are frequently empty, especially during the summer and winter holidays.
But the suggestion was rejected by most schools. It seems they were only willing to rent their facilities to social units or organizations that they were familiar with. They insisted that the the opening-up would only cause damage and administrative difficulties. Many principals feared that the income couldn't even cover the maintenance costs.
"I strongly support the idea that facilities in schools, enterprises and institutions should be open to the public on weekends," said Qiao. If the facilities in three primary schools and one middle school near Yuanling Housing Estate are made available to residents, the situation will be greatly relieved. It was told only 10 schools in Luohu District opened their facilities to the public on weekends.\;
Government effort\;
Qiao said that the legislation of public sports construction should be strengthened.
"The Shenzhen People's Congress should speed up the legislation of public sports facilities administration regulations in housing estates to guarantee culture and sports development in communities," said Qiao, adding that the construction of public sports facilities should be included in the city's overall planning of land use.
The local government has vowed to take measures to increase per capita sports space to 0.5 sqm through construction of more facilities.\;
Shenzhen Xiantong Sports Park, said to be the first sports theme park in China, will be constructed later this year once it passes final appraisal, according to Ye Guidong, chairman of the Administration Office of Shenzhen Wutong Mountain Scenery.\;
Located at the foot of Wutong Mountain, with a total investment of 300 million yuan and covering two million sqms, the sports park is designed to have a capacity of 12,000 visitors a day.\;
According to the plan which will be phased out in five years, 12 sports areas will provide over 50 activities to meet people from different age groups including ball games, martial arts, grass skiing, golf and shooting.\;
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