Hangzhou preparing 31 sports venues for the 2022 Asian Games

On February 27, Hangzhou released a special plan regarding sports facilities, which will see the city prepare 31 venues for the 2022 Asian Games.

This means Hangzhou is expected to add 12 new venues to the current 19 existing ones. Per the overall plan, the proposed project will involve 16,596 square kilometers in downtown Hangzhou and other administrative areas including Tongling County, Chun’an County and Jiande City. The short-term plan runs through 2022 while the long-term one runs through 2035.

Under the overall plan, Hangzhou will implement the initiative of “two centers and seven sub-centers, one circle and eight areas, and a network of balanced development”. Specifically, Yellow Dragon Sports Center Stadium and Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center will be seen as the two cores for public sports fitness while the 7 sports subcenters include the likes of Hangzhou Municipal Sports Center, Linping Sports Center and Xiasha Sub-city Sports Center.

A circle of leisure sports parks will also be set up to connect with places like the Xiang Lake Southern Sports Leisure Park and the Canal Country Park. The “eight areas” refer to the functional areas with many sports stadiums and great development potential, while a network of sports facilities will cover different administrative levels, including municipality, district, subdistrict and community.

Hangzhou is also looking to make its per capita sports area reach 0.5 square meters by 2020, with the goal of forming a “15-minute sports circle” and “5-minute fitness circle”.

By 2035, the city hopes that its per capita sports area can reach 0.7-0.9 square meters. At the same time, Hangzhou will see a sound sports industry in both quality and quantity, with 21 municipal/provincial sports facilities and 15 facilities for special sports.

All projects for new venues will start June 2018.

Source: zjnews.zjol.com.cn

Proofread by William Logsdon