While exploring China, I’ve been surprised at how much the country has embraced basketball. It’s everywhere: parks, military academies, at tourist spots. I suppose I shouldn’t be so surprised, though; the sport is just about as old here as in the US. James Naismith birthed basketball in 1891, and later that decade American missionaries brought the sport to China. (Ah, nothing like using a little sport to bring people into your religion…) So, even though their professional league is much younger than the sport’s birth country’s, it appears that Chinese love basketball just as much…if not more. Evidence? Here’s some pictures I snapped across China…
Click on the thumbnails below to see the pictures full size:
Nike-sponsored courts in Beijing
You know the famous Mao Zedong portrait? This is what’s on the other side of that wall.
kids playing at People’s Park in Qinhuangdao
a court outside of a Qinhuangdao apartment building
basketball goals at the beach in Beidaihe
a ripped-down goal at an elementary school in Xi’an
courts inside a military training place in Jiuzhaigou
a lone goal on a parking lot inside Jiuzhaigou Valley
of course you took pictures of all the basketball hoops!
Yes, yes, of course I did! Hehehe.