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

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 m2. 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 m2 and 0.97 m2 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.