IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i14p5136-d385263.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Providing Sports Venues on Mainland China: Implications for Promoting Leisure-Time Physical Activity and National Fitness Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Kai Wang

    (College of Landscape Architecture and Arts, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
    Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia)

  • Xuhui Wang

    (College of Landscape Architecture and Arts, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China)

Abstract

Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) has been well documented as having substantial health benefits. The 2014 Chinese Fitness Survey Report stated that a lack of physical activity (PA) spaces is the most important non-human factor, leading to 10% of leisure-time physical inactivity in people aged 20 and above. We investigated the provision of sports venues in China and discussed the development of sports venues and national fitness policies in the context of promoting LTPA and public health. We analyzed information from China’s most recent sport venue census, the Sixth National Sports Venues Census, conducted in 2013. The number of sports venues increased between 2000 and 2013, with an inflection point around the year 2008. At the end of 2013, there were 12.45 venues for every 10,000 residents, and the per capita area was 1.46 m 2 . However, numbers were still small compared with the United States and Japan. The percentages of full-time access, part-time access and membership venues were 51.5%, 14.3% and 34.2% respectively. Only half of sports venues were fully open to the public, meaning that the realized number and area per capita could be even lower. A lack of sports venues forces people who want to engage in PA to occupy other urban spaces that are not planned and designed for PA. Urban parks had 119,750 fitness station facilities (3.32% of the total), and 2366 urban fitness trails (19.24%), with a combined length of 6450 km (32.91%). On average, urban and rural areas had 13.17 and 10.80 venues per 10,000 persons, and 1.83 m 2 and 0.97 m 2 per capita. The urban-rural gap in sports venues exactly embodies some aspects of the “urban-rural dual structure” in China’s society. Measures to promote PA should focus on new and existing sports venues. In the policy making process, Chinese governments need to pay attention to the potential impact of related, external factors such as the gap between the urban and the rural and the potential advantage of indoor venues against summer heat and air pollution.

Suggested Citation

  • Kai Wang & Xuhui Wang, 2020. "Providing Sports Venues on Mainland China: Implications for Promoting Leisure-Time Physical Activity and National Fitness Policies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5136-:d:385263
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5136/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5136/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kai Wang & Jianjun Liu, 2017. "The Spatiotemporal Trend of City Parks in Mainland China between 1981 and 2014: Implications for the Promotion of Leisure Time Physical Activity and Planning," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-15, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huilin Wang & Xiao Zheng & Yang Liu & Ziqing Xu & Jingyu Yang, 2022. "Alleviating Doctors’ Emotional Exhaustion through Sports Involvement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Roles of Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy and Perceived Stress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-13, September.
    2. Yuanyuan Guo & Linchuan Yang & Wenke Huang & Yi Guo, 2020. "Traffic Safety Perception, Attitude, and Feeder Mode Choice of Metro Commute: Evidence from Shenzhen," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-20, December.
    3. Yong Jiang & Yangyang Liu & Zelei Liu & Chunwei Wang & Zhipeng Shi & Hongbo Zhao & Dongqi Sun & Wei Sun & Xiangquan Wang, 2022. "Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Public Fitness Venues: An Urban Accessibility Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Emanuela Gualdi-Russo & Luciana Zaccagni, 2021. "Physical Activity for Health and Wellness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-6, July.
    5. Yong Jiang & Chunwei Wang & Hongbo Zhao & Dongqi Sun & Zhipeng Shi & Jianhong (Cecilia) Xia, 2022. "Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Public Fitness Venues in the Main Urban Area of Dalian from the Perspective of Urban Accessibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, October.
    6. Mingzhu Pan & Binbin Ying & Yani Lai & Garry Kuan, 2022. "Status and Influencing Factors of Physical Exercise among College Students in China: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-10, October.
    7. Feng Qian & Zedao Shi & Li Yang, 2024. "Thinking of Green, Low Carbon, and Energy-Saving Designs Based on the Variable Ventilation of Natatoriums: Taking the Jiading Natatorium of Tongji University as an Example," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-20, May.
    8. Xinze Li & Ronghui Yu & Chenjie Yan & Hongwei Xie, 2022. "A Study on the Path to the Sustainable Development of Sports-Consuming Cities—A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Fuzzy Sets Based on Data from 35 Cities in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-14, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhipeng Xing & Sidong Zhao & Kerun Li, 2023. "Evolution Pattern and Spatial Mismatch of Urban Greenspace and Its Impact Mechanism: Evidence from Parkland of Hunan Province," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-31, November.
    2. Liu, Yang & Kwan, Mei-Po & Wong, Man Sing & Yu, Changda, 2023. "Current methods for evaluating people's exposure to green space: A scoping review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    3. Shujin Zhang & Peiheng Yu & Yiyun Chen & Ying Jing & Fanxin Zeng, 2022. "Accessibility of Park Green Space in Wuhan, China: Implications for Spatial Equity in the Post-COVID-19 Era," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-20, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5136-:d:385263. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.