As night falls, the Qianlingshan sports park begins to buzz as hundreds of residents pack inside to exercise. Around 55 meters above the park, cars weave in and out of traffic on the overpass.

Located in Guiyang, the capital city of Southwest China's Guizhou province, the sports park was once a vacant lot under the largest overpass project of the city.

To make good use of the land, the local government invested heavily in transforming the lot into a sports park. In 2018, the park opened to the public. Covering an area of 250,000 square meters, the park is equipped with outdoor soccer fields and basketball courts, indoor areas with table tennis and badminton as well as a parking lot.

"It's a real hot spot in the city every night. You can see people running, kicking balls, even playing with spinning tops," says Qin Mingxia, a regular at the park.

Qianlingshan sports park is just one example of China's efforts to increase the number of venues and facilities to promote fitness activities among residents.

In 2014, China proposed to promote "15-minute fitness circles" in urban communities, providing physical exercise facilities that residents can reach within 15 minutes.

In July 2019, the government issued an action plan for 2019-30 to implement the country's Healthy China initiative and promote people's health.

Under the plan, people are advised to engage in 30 minutes of fitness activities three or more times a week. It says a person needs to walk between 6,000 and 10,000 steps every day.

The action plan says that members of the public should be able to access fitness facilities within a walking distance of 15 minutes.

Aside from Qianlingshan sports park, a residential community in the city has recently turned a vacant fountain pool area into a fitness hub where people can play badminton, jog and use gym equipment.

To achieve the goal, Guizhou's sports department and educational department have also joined together to open school sports facilities to the public.

Wu Kunling, an official from Guanshanhu district of Guiyang city, says that 13 schools have participated in a pilot project, and the local government will purchase the liability insurance for school sports facilities after opening. It will also pay for the maintenance of the venues and the sports facilities at participating schools.

Xinhua