# Organized sports in mainland china **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 13, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organized-sports-in-mainland-china/804360 "2017-12-13T03:38:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organized-sports-in-mainland-china/804360/1 "2017-12-13T03:38:59Z")
I am curious about whether there is a “national pastime” sport in China. Something along the lines of football in Europe or Baseball/Basketball/Football in the US. Are there sports stadiums in major Chinese cities where large numbers of fans go to cheer on their favorite badminton team? What sports are popular to the public at large? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organized-sports-in-mainland-china/804360/2 "2017-12-13T03:40:37Z")
Moved to the Game Room. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organized-sports-in-mainland-china/804360/3 "2017-12-13T05:07:20Z")
Football (soccer) is huge. Has tons of leagues. This is the big stadium draw Biggest sport is probably ping pong. Badminton is big and Lin Dan dominated the sport for years and multiple Olympic medals. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organized-sports-in-mainland-china/804360/4 "2017-12-13T05:46:09Z")
I’m not sure I agree about ping pong. I get the impression it’s seen as old-fashioned and few young people admit to watching it. Meanwhile basketball has come from nowhere to being an incredibly popular participation sport, but still most people are more interested in watching the NBA than the CBA. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organized-sports-in-mainland-china/804360/5 "2017-12-13T07:06:15Z")
Basketball is the most popular sport in China. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organized-sports-in-mainland-china/804360/6 "2017-12-13T15:28:02Z")
Thanks! The Game Room. Cool. I haven’t been here before. Thank you for the replies. So Football and Basketball seem to be the leading spectator sports. Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organized-sports-in-mainland-china/804360/7 "2017-12-14T08:20:50Z")
China has over a billion people but in rare instances does not dominate many sports. Most Chinese parents look down on sports and feel their children’s future is in a good regular job (wow imagine THAT). For most sports there is no effective college/minor league/high school infrastructure to develop athletes in soccer, basketball or other sports and the major leagues, especially soccer, are rotten to the core with corruption. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organized-sports-in-mainland-china/804360/8 "2017-12-14T12:09:04Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > For most sports there is no effective college/minor league/high school infrastructure to develop athletes in soccer, basketball or other sports and the major leagues, especially soccer, are rotten to the core with corruption. In the past, there were huge efforts to develop young athletes, in the sense of literally trying to identify them at kindergarten age and send them to specialized primary schools, high schools, colleges, etc. (A former co-worker of mine got rejected by a table tennis primary school at age 6.) But definitely professional leagues are severely lacking compared to other countries which is a major stumbling block.