A coach demonstrates an exercise at the Fifth China Healthy Lifestyle Conference in Beijing, August 18, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)
SICKNESS AND WEALTH
Lin Xianpeng, vice director of the Management College of Beijing Sport University, says the trend is due to fears about worsening health.
"Almost half the Chinese population is sub-healthy; millions people have chronic ailments; the cases of both diabetes and cardio-cerebral vascular diseases have reached 190 million," says Lin.
Furthermore, insomnia and obesity rates have exceeded those of developed countries, and their continued rise is spreading among younger people.
"We need to be clear that, though China is getting rich, its people's health should not be poor," Lin says. "China should avoid being the sick man of Asia again."
Public awareness of fitness begins when a nation's GDP per capita hits $5,000, says Liu Qing, deputy secretary-general at Chinese Association of Sport Industry. Should it surpass 8,000 U.S. dollars, the fitness industry will be a pillar of the national economy.
China's GDP per capita exceeded $5,000 in 2011 and reached $8,016 last year, according to official data.
In 1995, the government issued the "Outline of Nationwide Physical Fitness Program", pledging sports and health-building services would be aligned with national economic development.
Since then, all national five-year plans have included programs on public fitness. Sports facilities, stadiums and games have entered a period of rapid growth.
In 2014, the government updated the fitness program into a national strategy.
In June, it released the national fitness program for 2016-2020, forecasting 435 million people will regularly play sport and the total sport-related consumption will reach 1.5 trillion yuan by 2020.
Sport will become the new engine to boost domestic spending in a slowing economy, said Liu Peng, Minister of China's General Administration of Sport.
