On Saturday, February 21, I visited the Shichahai Sports School.  From my understanding, children start focusing on one sport in China at age 5.  From then on, they live and train at an area sports school, and also attend normal school either on the compound or nearby.  Shichahai is very famous because it is home to many China National Team sports like kung fu and badminton.  It is also famous because it is the sports school actor Jet Li trained and attended as a child.

While visiting the school I saw training for boxing, men’s volleyball, badminton, tai chi, tennis, kung fu, taekwondo, as well as table tennis.  I sat in on the 7 to 13 year old table tennis training.  It was one big room with 24 tables (3 rows of 8).

Table Tennis:  Panoramic - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo0pDJZCrXs

Table Tennis:  10 yr old match - www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BZmWRu0ybk

Beijing City was hosting a boxing tournament that day, with 16 to 20 year olds coming from Beijing and its surrounding cities.

Boxing - www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOxOGdYRYys