Sport

I like many of the foreigners living in China love my sport and although trying to keep up with events back home can often mean staying up to the early hours it’s all very accessible. As an Englishmen I’m a big football fan (Charlton Athletic) and it may surprise you to know that they don’t cover many games live from The Valley in Wuhan. After years of living here I’m still yet to meet a Chinese person who understands why I don’t support Man U, Chelsea or Liverpool. Coverage of the Premier League here is pretty good with a 3:00 Saturday kick off always shown live on TV as well as the late Sunday game. There are two pundits who cover all the matches with the Alan Hansen equivalent being a man seemingly in his early 70’s…whilst I do question his credentials slightly my intermediate understanding of Mandarin means I don’t fully understand his analysis. It’s no Monday Night Football with Gary Neville…although probably better than Keys and Gray.  The Champions league is also shown live on TV but with the 7 or 8 hour time difference it does mean staying up til the early hours. Other sports from back home are harder to catch, most people don’t really know what rugby or cricket is but there are a couple of foreign bars which show the Six nations and Test cricket.

Basketball is probably the most popular sport among young people in China with the NBA shown regularly. The NBA players are huge stars here and you can often see them on some dodgy TV adverts not too dissimilar from the Japanese Lipstick Joey advertises on friends. Students play basketball a lot and when I first arrived my teaching colleagues invited me to play basketball with them which became a weekly activity. The guys I played with were all very competitive and I really enjoyed playing with them, we always went for BBQ and a few beers afterwards too.  Badminton is another very popular sport here so if you enjoy playing you will definitely meet some friends to play with and no matter where you live in the city they will be some badminton courts not too far from you. Wuhan is also the home of tennis player Li Na and with her success over the past few years tennis is growing in popularity, if you are a keen player then be sure to bring your racket with you as there are plenty of courts around.

I thought it would be fitting to write about sport this week as it coincides with David Beckham visiting Wuhan in his new role as an ambassador of Chinese football last week. Chinese league football has had plenty of bad press in recent years and especially Wuhan’s team which has changed its name several times because of off the field issues. Last season Wuhan Zall as they are now called were promoted to the top division and they have played their first two games of the new season…losing them both. They play in a 60,000 all seater stadium and although the capacity isn’t often reached there is a great atmosphere and I really recommend anyone living here to go a check out a few of the games, although prepare yourself for some questionable refereeing decisions. From my experiences of being here sport can be a great way of making friends when you first arrive and lack any language skills.