With the rapid development of the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center, the efforts of evacuation, remediation, and upgrading continue to increase. The large-scale green spaces vacated after the adjustment of industrial structure and industrial upgrading have become green pearls in the sub-center of the city and have become good places for people to live and relax.
In 2022, the District Sports Bureau released three major marathon routes, ten cycling routes, and ten running routes, which cover the Grand Canal, Chaobai River, Jian River, Wenyu River, Liangshui River, and many other major rivers in the area, which is convenient for fitness enthusiasts to enjoy the beautiful scenery in the exercise. Qiu Zheng, who lives near Chongwenmen in Dongcheng District, loves to ride along the Grand Canal and comes here once a month on average to enjoy the beauty of the Grand Canal in all seasons. He also posts the beautiful scenery photos captured on his rides on his social media, which has been enthusiastically praised by his family and friends, and at the strong request of all of them, he has also formed a team to bring his friends to the city's sub-center to play.
The environment continues to improve, so that runners have more quality running routes, not only Beijing residents often group to run in the sub-center, but runners from Tianjin and Hebei are also frequent visitors.
As long as there is time, Liu Weiliang, living in Yanjiao, will come to the City Green Heart Forest Park to run a few laps on weekends and takes a liking to this place, "the park is a large oxygen bar, and inside the park the star-shaped road is also very interesting when running, the overall environment supporting are very friendly to the runners." Not only does he like it, but this running route in City Green Heart Forest Park is loved by runners from all over the world, and it also became the first four-star fitness trail certified by the Chinese Athletics Association in 2022.
The route of the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center Marathon has always been praised, along which not only the scenery of the Grand Canal but also many ancient and modern natural and cultural landscapes are included. With a good environment, beautiful routes, and complete supporting services, the exciting and thoughtful sports events not only make athletes from all over the country enjoy themselves but also promote the cultural tourism brand building of the sub-center. The integrated development of culture, sports, and tourism adds vitality to this dynamic city.
In recent years, the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center has seized the opportunity of the "two districts" construction policy to accelerate the construction of a modern and internationalized financial and industrial system that matches its functional position and has become a new window for the capital's opening up to the outside world and a key region for economic development. In terms of enhancing the overall strength of the sports industry, the sub-center is also continuously strengthening the construction of facilities, promoting sports consumption, creating a city of culture, sports, tourism, and entertainment, and the brands of "Sports in Tongzhou" and "Canal + Sports" are gradually gaining popularity.
The sports industry in the city's sub-center is developing healthily and vigorously. According to statistics, the total area of planned and unimplemented public sports land within the scope of the sub-center (155 square kilometers) is about 91 hectares, and the total area of planned and unimplemented public sports land in the townships on the periphery of the sub-center is about 36 hectares, and the per capita area of the sports ground has reached 2.51 square meters. There are now three comprehensive venues, namely Canal Olympic Sports Park, Lucheng National Fitness Center, and Tongzhou District Stadium, of which Lucheng National Fitness Center and Tongzhou District Stadium are under construction. The total length of fitness trails in the district is about 315 kilometers, there are 139 social soccer fields and 3 sports parks.
So far this year, the sub-center has held more than 300 national fitness activities, with a total of 200,000 direct participants, and the ratio of the number of people who regularly participate in physical exercise in the whole district has reached 49.77%. In the past two years, the sub-center has also focused on building canal water sports projects and has held waterfront events such as the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center Canal Rowing Masters, the Beijing Paddleboard Open, and the National Powerboard Competition, etc. Next year, the sub-center will also plan to organize water sports competitions such as dragon boats and sailing boats.
At present, the district has 50 sports social organizations, 420 national fitness teams, 33 fitness Qigong stations, and 6970 social sports instructors, reaching 3.8 social sports instructors allocated for every 1,000 people. There are 334 fitness venues for various programs such as fitness and swimming, of which 181 are training institutions, with more than 6,200 people working in sports programs. Empowered by sports, The sports industry sales of the city's sub-center in the district are estimated at 15.83 billion yuan in 2023.
On weekends, people get out of their homes to enjoy cycling and outdoor fun. Cycling, running, camping, Frisbee, roller skating, and so on are becoming the daily routine of leisure for people in the sub-center. What's more surprising is that these popular sports have become quality sports events organized by the sub-center. These recreational sports not only drive citizens to participate in them, but also release the consumption potential, stimulate market vitality, improve the quality of the city, and become a powerful hand of the sub-center to promote sports, culture, and tourism, and empower the revitalization of the countryside.
Translator: ZHOU Huilin
Reviewer: LIU Jin
