Beijing - After work on Friday evening, the Nirvana Fitness and Spa centre in the Sanlitun district of Beijing was filling up fast. Office workers were heading to the gym with bags of workout clothes slung over their shoulders.
Inside, some early arrivals were already working up a sweat. One guy grunted and hopped around as he knocked a boxing ball like it's his worst enemy. A woman stepped to her own rhythm on the step machine. And a group of woman on the sixth floor twirled around in various dance steps.
No one was paying any attention to the Olympic badminton match being broadcast live on TV, much less playing the sport long beloved in China.
This is partly indicative of the changing sports culture in China, even as athletes are still competing in traditional sports during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Not only has China transformed its economy over the past few decades, the kind of sports people like to play have under gone a revolution of sorts.
"When I was young I kicked around a feather birdy with my friends or played the rubber band rope game or we would play ping pong or badminton, but now almost everyone in my office goes to the gym," said Yang Yunqiu, a 25-year-old marketing assistant for a jewelry company, who was heading to the gym for a session with her personal trainer.
Joining fitness centres where exercise machines, weightlifting, spinning, Pilates, yoga, and boxing are all the rage is just one of the latest sports fads in China.
People are also trying all sorts of sports previously unheard of or unthinkable in China, including rock climbing, bungee jumping, Taekwando, roller blading, bowling and golf.
Curiosity about and willingness to try new things are so strong that a rock climbing wall and bungee jumping facility now compete for attention with the ancient sacrificial altar at the Temple of the Sun or Ritan Park - one of the few royal gardens in Beijing.
As recent as the late '80s, golf was considered a bourgeois sport and former Communist Party Secretary General Zhao Ziyang was criticized for taking a liking to it, but golf courses have become so popular with China's newly rich or wannabe rich businessmen that the government had to restrict the number of golf courses being built to stop the encroachment on precious farmland and water resources.
In some of Beijing's more prestigious schools, kids don knee pads, elbow pads and helmets for rollerblading lessons during PE class. It wasn't so long ago that schools lined kids up in rows to do basic Communist style calistenic exercises.
Li Xiangru, a professor from the Capital Institute of Physical Education in Beijing, said the changes in Chinese people's exercise habits stem from people having more time, money and being more influenced by trends overseas.
"Before China's reform and opening, we had to work six days a week; later that was changed to five days, so we have more time now. Secondly, our income increased ... so people's lifestyles changed," said Li.
"In big cities like Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, in particular, people are very keen to engage in sports."
Sports appeal is also driven by what's considered cool to young people. Basketball stars such as Kobe Bryant are increasingly rivaling badminton stars in popularity among teenagers.
During the Olympics, the top three sports competitions that are grabbing the most attention from Chinese people are football, basketball, and Taekwando, according to a report published by a company that studies what Chinese people like to search online, User Research Lab of Chinese Search. Badminton and table tennis come in fourth and fifth.
But many sports that Chinese enthusiasts like are not even in the Olympics, including "street dance" such as hip hop, classes for which are widely available in fitness centres. The dance is considered a great way to work out the whole body as well as have fun.
Fishing, car racing, yoga and pool are also on the top of the list of popular sports in China, according to a recent report published by the company.
Age and financial ability is increasingly defining what kinds of sports people in China play, mirroring a growing rich-poor gap.
While young white collar workers would not blink an eye forking out 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan (450 dollars to 750 dollars) for a one-year gym membership or renting a room to play squash at 50 yuan to 80 yuan an hour, blue collar workers some of whom earn as little as 30 yuan a day and people in China's smaller towns and the countryside would not imagine affording such extravagances.
In less developed areas, playing pool on pavements constitutes a form of modern exercise, while many farmers do not have the concept of exercising at all.
Middle aged retirees or elderly people in the cities meanwhile prefer less rigorous exercises and while they are still playing ping pong and badminton sometimes, many are also trying a variety of new activities.
In the mornings, many balance a ball on a small racket while doing a group dance. In the evenings, they gather to dance social dance, a type of line dancing or fan dances.
Traditionalist still meet early in the morning in parks for Martial Arts type of exercises such as the sword dance, qigong - a breathing exercise - or Tai Chi, but these sports have little place in the fitness centres.
"I don't think these sports are backwards, but people have different interest nowadays," said Yang Feiyue, a manager of members services at the Nirvana fitness centre.
Despite the mushrooming of various sports in China, the concept of exercise is still not as strong as in wealthy developed countries, said Li, the sports professor and Yang, the Nirvana manager.
"We are trying to get the government to require schools to open up their campus sports facilities to the public when the students are not using them, just like they do in other countries," said Li.
Currently the schools keep the facilities such as basketball courts and swimming pools locked up when school is out and some argue there are still not enough affordable sports facilities to meet the demands of the large population in Chinese cities.
He's confident the trend towards exercising more will continue as promoting good health has become more important for the government and the public as the rates of obesity and lifestyle related illnesses are increasing with increasing wealth.
The Olympics has spurred more people to sign up for memberships at gyms like Nirvana, said Yang, who added that joining the gym has become more mainstream and affordable for more people in recent years.
The marketing assistant Yang said it simply suits working professionals' lifestyle.
"It's hard to find a place to play badminton and it's either too sunny or windy. With an indoor gym, we can come anytime we like," she said.
