Pingtan has seen a steep jump in the number of sports events that provide a variety of options for the public in need of workouts.

Throughout the first seven months this year, more than 12,000 sports activities have been held in the county, attracting hundreds of thousands of people to take part in, while in 2008, only about 2,000 sports events took place, according to statistics from the local cultural and sports bureau.

Besides enriching the content of sports games, local government also exert great efforts in improving conditions of sports facilities in favor of the national fitness as it has refurbished the Renmin Stadium, the Haiyu Square as well as the Huandao (Island Ring) Road, and added many more parks to the list of places for public fitness.

In the meantime, Pingtan pays attention to fitness in rural areas as it has built 11 fitness projects covering 192 villages in the county.

To promote the fifth National Fitness Day which falls on August 8 every year, Fujian province held a large sports meeting across 12 divisions including Pingtan. The sports meeting will last till December.

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Niva Whyman