Strong Base Builds Chinese Champions

China has several world-class sports training facilitiesprovince, is still considered China's most
around the nation, many of which have helped laycomprehensive and well-equipped soccer training
the foundation for China's Olympic success.complex.
The following eight facilities are some of theHongta Group, which owns the Chinese cigarette
best-known training bases in China and havebrand of the same name, built and financed the
produced some of the country's most talented andtraining base. It was originally home to the province's
decorated athletes:first soccer club, also named Hongta, in the 1990s,
Duobathe first-ever in the history of the province in 1990s.
Duoba, China's best high-altitude training base and oneWhen the club's popularity fell, Hongta Group decided
of the best in the world, is known both as theto turn it into a top-notch training base.
"Cradle of World Champions" and a "Factory of GoldThe base covers an area of 334,300 sq m. Hongta
Medalists".Croup spent a total of 690 million yuan on the
Located in Huangzhong county on the Qingzangconstruction, which was completed in 2001.
Plateau in China's northwestern Qinghai province, itThe training base borders the picturesque Dianchi
sits 2,365m above sea level where the annualLake, one of the most famous tourism resorts in
average temperature is 6.5 C above zero. It hasYunnan. The base has 11 full-size outdoor soccer
been the training ground for China's national swimmingpitches, 11 tennis courts, and four indoor training
team, shooting team and track and field team sincecenters for winter sports, badminton, bowling and
the 1990s.swimming.
The Duoba training base has spawned a large arsenalChina's men's team has used the base to prepare for
of Chinese world champions and Olympic stars overalmost every important international tournament since
the past two decades. The best known bunch is the2001.
legendary Chinese long-distance running group "Ma's
Team", which won four gold medals, two silvers andWomen's field hockey team. [Agencies]
two bronzes at the 1993 Stuttgart World 
Championships.Zhangzhou
With a price tag of 5 million yuan, the training base
Lin Danfor China's women's volleyball team is the most
 expensive volleyball stadium built in China's history.
Xing Huina, the 2004 Athens Games women'sEach citizen in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, donated
10,000m gold winner, also attributes her triumph fourone yuan to build the stadium, a move aimed at
years ago to Duoba's unique geological position.raising the team's morale after its worst-ever
Duoba used to be a military factory warehouse. InOlympic result in Barcelona 1992.
1982, The Qinghai Sports Bureau acquired the baseIt was the second time the people in Zhangzhou
and transformed it into a state-of-the-art trainingshowed their steadfast support for the volleyball
complex. The Beijing and Qinghai governments haveteam - in 1972, Zhangzhou authorities mobilized local
invested more than 2 billion yuan ($291 million) involunteers to build a "bamboo-framed stadium" for
reconstructing the facility over the past 20 years.the national women's team.
Other sports that train at Duoba include archery,The foreign press once described the base as the
soccer, basketball, badminton, volleyball, table tennis,"secret foundation" of the Chinese volleyball team. As
judo, wrestling, and taekwondo.time went on, the real secret of the team's success
Qiandao Lakewas unveiled: the love, affection and heart-felt
The name of Qiandao Lake, which translates tosupport of the the Zhangzhou people.
"Thousand-Islands Lake", explains its unique charm.Lang Ping, the world-acclaimed Chinese spiker and
The training base lies deep in the heart of thehead coach of the US team, once wrote: "We (the
world-famous Qiandao Lake tourism resort. It isChinese team as a whole) will forever remember the
129km from the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou,Zhangzhou people's dedicated emotion, understanding
Zhejiang province. The resort's name comes fromand support!"
the 1,078 islands sprinkled across the area's 573 sqApart from Zhangzhou, Beilun, in Zhejiang province,
km of water surface.will become another home of China's women's
The water region is not a natural creation, however.volleyball team once the 127,000 sq m facility finishes
It was formed by the construction of a hydropowerconstruction.
station in 1959.Zhengding
The surrounding forest keeps the region's weatherThe Zhengding National Table Tennis Training Base
warm and humid all year long. The averagewas built on the generous contributions of Wang
temperature is a stable 17 C.Guangqing, the man who created the prototype of a
Rowing coach Zhang Guiting discovered the secludedsports training base 16 years ago.
water area. He was impressed by the tranquility ofThe 70-year-old physical education teacher has seen
the area and its wide variation of water conditions,his brainchild pump out top-level table tennis players
making it ideal for rowing and canoe training.ever since.
In 2000, the national rowing team was looking for anIn August 1970, Wang was transferred to Zhengding
appropriate place to train athletes for the 2004county to work as a primary school physical
Athens Games. The team was informed of theeducation teacher. Driven by his fervent passion for
training base, which the Zhejiang sports bureau hadtable tennis, Wang organized a school-wide training
bought for 1.64 million yuan in 1999.team. He spent all his earnings on table tennis books,
The General Administration of Sport invested anotherand led his players in an after-school work program,
50 million yuan to overhaul Qiandao Lake, addingtrying to raise money for training.
world-class canoeing and rowing apparatuses for theWang's perseverance paid off eight years later. His
team's training.12-member table tennis school received long-awaited
As athletes sweat during practice, the training base'ssupport from the city's sports authority and it
natural beauty helps relieve some of the psychologicalbecame "China's key table tennis sports school". The
pressure brought on by the repetitive and sometimessuccess inspired Wang to turn the school into a
tedious training.nation-wide table tennis training base.
In 2004, Meng Guanliang and Yang Wenjun, bothPhase by phase, the school evolved into a modern
coached and trained in Qiandao Lake, won China'scomprehensive table tennis training compound,
first-ever Olympic canoeing gold.providing cutting-edge equipment, facilities and training
Jinjiangmethods.
For many Chinese, the image of Jinjiang, a small townThe training base is located 260km from Beijing in
in southern China's Fujian province, is more associatedHebei province. The proximity to the capital enabled
with the sports footwear industry than thethe base to train the Chinese women's team before
badminton team's training base. The national team hasthe 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The team went on to
trained at Jinjiang for the past six years. It was builtclinch both women's gold medals.
on donations from expatriate Chinese from the town.Since then, the 21,000 sq m training base has been
Jinjiang Sports Traning Base was built in 2002, adesignated as the official training venue for the
historic low point for Chinese shuttlers. China's headnational teams. Cai Zhenhua, former head coach of
coach, Li Yongbo, was desperate to get the teamthe national table tennis team, described Zhengding
back in top form and came upon Jinjiang by chance.as "the best training base on the planet".
He liked the base's existing facilities, and brought theJiangmen
team there for a trial training. It was the beginning ofWhen Li Ting and Sun Tiantian won China's first-ever
a new age for Chinese badminton.Olympic tennis gold, it was a turning point in Chinese
That year's horrifying SARS epidemic entrenched thesports history. The China Tennis Association
province and trapped the entire shuttle team in thesubsequently designated Jiangmen, a coastal city to
base. The original training schedule was stretchedthe west of the Pearl River Delta, the home of the
from 40 days to 100 days. Some say it was thosenational tennis training base.
extra days that helped transform the team - ChinaIt was not entirely a surprise - Jiangmen city had long
won titles in men's singles, women's singles andboasted a tradition of tennis. The city was home to
women's doubles at the 2003 World Championships.more than 80 tennis courts and tennis was the most
The training compound is guarded round the clock inwidely played local sport.
order to ensure undisrupted training for the team.Huayuan Hotel, where the training center is located,
The Jingjiang facility has a secret weapon - a hugesits on a beautiful island. There are eight standard
pool full of quartz sand. Shuttlers practice in the pool,tennis courts used for training. Another 12 courts and
battling against the drag of the sand under foot,a central tennis center are scheduled to be built with
helping improve their movement and flexibility.an investment of 15 million yuan.
HongtaJiangmen has become a magnet for tennis fans all
Despite the disappointment of China men's Olympicsover China. Tennis is also the core industry of the
soccer team, its training base in Hongta, Yunnanregion.