To be a country strong in sports

　  It is 7 o’clock on Sunday.

13-year-old Lin Qi is going to a sports venue¹ near his home. Every Sunday morning, Lin and his friend go there to play ping-pong. Although it’s very early, the sports venue is full of people because they can play for free in the venue from 7 am to 9 am on weekends.

　Similar things are happening in many sports venues across China. They give cheap or free access² to people. This good situation owes much to our government’s efforts.

　In order to encourage more people to exercise and build China into a country strong in sports, the Chinese government does a lot. They help build lots of sports facilities³. They also improve physical education in schools and give help to sports venues.

　Thanks to these efforts, more and more Chinese people are having fun playing sports. A study shows that more than 500 million Chinese people often exercise. As more people play sports, China’s sports industry is growing so fast. China’s sports industry was worth 2.73 trillion yuan in 2020. Some experts said it could be worth up to 5 trillion yuan by 2025.

　The government said that they will do more to help people exercise and move faster to build China into a country strong in sports. Let’s wait and see.

Notes:

1. venue n. 场馆 2. access n. 使用权

3. facility n. 设施