Steep mountains and stiff ocean breezes are an excellent recipe for paragliding, especially along the east coast.

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At a Glance

Sports figures from the Republic of China are being recognized internationally for their achievements at high-profile compe-titions, and the nation has in recent years been the host of a number of world sporting events. Often participating under

the name “Chinese Taipei,” the nation’s top athletes are steadily build-ing a reputation for themselves in a variety of sports ranging from billiards and golf to taekwondo and powerlifting.

In 2010, the nation had a very strong showing at the Asian Games; its Little and Junior League baseball teams won honors overseas; and its powerlifters continued to impress audiences the world over. In June 2011, its star golfer Yani Tseng became the youngest player ever to win four major titles. In addition to nurturing top athletes, Taiwan is encouraging all citizens to be physically active. A four-year plan to enhance Taiwan’s sports environment and promote exercise and sport is underway, with a focus on improving citizens’ swimming ability.

Having hosted the 2009 World Games and Summer Deaflympics, Taiwan is once again looking to showcase its sports environment and manage-ment efficiency. In January 2011, it held the season-ending Super Series Finals for the world’s best eight badminton players and, in July, staged for the first time ever a world baseball championship for players 12 and under. It is also scheduled to hold a major women’s golf event in October.

• Athletesshineingolfandpowerlifting

• StellarperformanceattheAsianGames

• Encouragingmoreofthepublictobephysicallyactive

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The Taiwanese team that won the 2010 IBAF World Junior Baseball Championship celebrates upon returning to Taichung City. (Central News Agency)

Sports Achievements Baseball

The year 1968 was a milestone forthedevelopmentofbaseball inTaiwan,whenaLittleLeagueteamfromthere-moteindigenousvillageofHongye紅葉inTaitungCounty臺東縣twicedefeatedachampionshipteamfromJapan.Inthefollowing27years from1969 to1996,Taiwan won 17 Little League WorldSeries championships—a number sec-ond only to the United States. Thankstothis,baseballbecameanationalpas-time.Theyear2010alsoprovedfruitfulfor Taiwan’s teams in the internationalarena(seetable“PerformanceinInterna-tionalBaseballCompetitions,2010”).

InJuly2011,TaipeiCity臺北市hostedtheinaugural12UBaseballWorldCham-pionship. Teams from 14 countries andterritories took part in the event.And inlateJuly,the2011WorldChildren’sBase-ballFairbeganinKaohsiungCity高雄市.

Many of the players representingTaiwan in international events regu-larly play for teams associated with theChinese Professional Baseball League(CPBL) 中華職棒大聯盟. The CPBL was

founded in1989and, in2003,absorbedacompetingleague.Itcurrentlyconsistsof four teams: the Brother Elephants 兄

弟象, the Uni-President Lions 統一獅,the Sinon Bulls 興農牛 and the LamigoMonkeysLamigo桃猿(previouslytheLaNew BearsLa New 熊).The teams playaregularseasonof120games.In2010,the Brother Elephants took the cham-pionship title for the seventh time in theCPBL’s21-yearhistory.

Overall, professional baseball inTaiwan has lost many players to larger,more developed markets. Prominent ex-amples include pitcher Kuo Hong-chih郭泓志, now with the U.S. Major LeagueBaseballteamLosAngelesDodgers;andpitcher Chen Wei-yin 陳偉殷, currentlywiththeChunichiDragonsoftheNipponProfessionalBaseballleague.

Reviving the National PastimeConcernover thedeclineof this sport

has prompted the government to take ac-tiontohelpTaiwanliveuptoitsfullpoten-tialandregainthegloryofdayspast,whenteamsbroughthomeabronzeandasilvermedalfromthe1984LosAngelesand1992BarcelonaOlympicGames,respectively.

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Performance in International Baseball Competitions 2010

Location Results

AsianLittleLeagueChampionship Japan FirstAsianAABaseballChampionship Thailand FirstJuniorLeagueWorldSeries UnitedStates FirstWorldJuniorBaseballChampionship Canada FirstAsianGames MainlandChina SecondLittleLeagueWorldSeries UnitedStates ThirdPonyBaseballBroncoLeagueWorldSeries UnitedStates ThirdIntercontinentalCup Taiwan Fourth

The SportsAffairs Council (SAC) 行政院體育委員會haslaunchedaplantore-vitalize this sport with an investment ofNT$1.02billion(US$32.40million)overa four-year period between 2010 and2013.The largest portion—45percent—ofthebudgetwillbeallocatedtothedevel-opmentofplayersfromtheelementarytothecollegiatelevels.About38percentwillbe spent on 10 to 12 amateur teams—tobe formedbygovernmentagencies,state-runenterprisesandprivatecorporations—to help develop a larger talent pool forinternational competition. The Ministryof Education (MOE) has also earmarkedNT$1billion (US$31.61million) to fundbaseballdevelopmentatschools.

BasketballFollowingtheRepublicofChinagov-

ernment’s relocation to Taiwan in 1949,the government and military organizedtournamentsandbuiltmanyoftheisland’sfirstbasketballcourts.Over thenextfewdecades, the game gained a followingas Taiwan’s national teams frequentlyput on impressive performances abroad.Interschool basketball leagues were es-tablishedinthelate1980s.

The top international basketball eventin Taiwan is the William Jones CupInvitational.Namedafterthefirstsecretary-general of the Fédération Internationale

de Basketball, this annual competitionwas first organized in 1977. Since thetournament’sfounding,over50countrieshave participated. In 2010, teams fromIran, Lebanon, Japan, the Philippines,Australia, the Republic of Korea andKhazakstan competed. Taiwan fieldedtwosquadsinthemen’stournament—theROC-A team, which finished fifth, andthe University All-Stars 大專明星男籃隊,whichplacedsixthamongsevencompet-ing teams.Thewomen’s teamfell to theROKinthefinals,endingupintheNo.2spotamongthefourcontenders.

The nation’s first professional bas-ketball league was the Chinese Basket-ball Alliance 中華職業籃球聯盟, foundedin 1993 and disbanded in 2000. Threeyears later, the Super Basketball League超級籃球聯賽 was formed. It currentlyincludes a men’s league of seven teamsandawomen’s leagueof six teams.Theseven men’s teams are Taiwan Beer 臺

灣啤酒, Yulon Luxgen 裕隆納智捷, DacinTigers 達欣工程, Bank of Taiwan 臺灣銀

行, Taiwan Mobile Clouded Leopards 台

灣大雲豹, PureYouth Construction 璞園建

築andKinmenKaoliangLiquor金門酒廠.In2011,TaiwanBeertriumphedovertheDacinTigerstoclaimthetitle.

TheWomen’sSuperBasketballLeague女子超級籃球聯賽 opened its 2011 seasonwith six teams: Chunghwa Telecom 中

華電信, Fo Guang University 佛光大學,

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Taipower 台電, Tai Yuen 台元, newlyformed Applause 艾柏斯 and returningCathay Life 國泰人壽. The season con-cluded with Cathay Life defeating TaiYuentowinthechampionship.

GolfOnce referred to as the “Asian Golf

Kingdom” for its dominance of Asianchampionships in the 1970s and 1980s,Taiwan has in recent years regained itsreputationas thehomeofmastersof thelinksbyproducingstellarplayers.

Whileinthepast,manyplayersbegantheir careers as caddies, athletes todayreceive professional training much ear-lier.YaniTseng 曾雅妮 is the star of thisnew generation. Having turned profes-sional in 2007, she went on to becomethefirstathletefromTaiwantoclaimtheMcDonald’sLadiesProfessionalGolfAs-sociation(LPGA)Championshipin2008.Thenaged19,Tsengbecame theyoung-est golfer ever to take the title and thesecond-youngest towinanLPGAmajor.ShewasnamedRookieoftheYearbytheassociation.

In the 2010 Kraft Nabisco Champi-onship and the Ricoh Women’s BritishOpen, she took top honors and becametheyoungestfemalegolfer(atage21)tohave won three LPGA majors. For hersuperb performance in 2010, Tseng wasnamedRolexPlayeroftheYear.ShewasalsovotedFemalePlayerof theYearbytheGolfWritersAssociationofAmerica.Her2011 seasonopenedwith a success-ful defense of the Taifong Ladies Open台豐女子國際公開賽 and Australian Opentitles.Afterabrilliantfour-shotvictoryatthe Australian Ladies Masters in Febru-ary,Tseng rose to No. 1 in the world, aranking she defended with yet anotherwin at the Honda LPGA Thailand laterthat month and again at the LPGA StateFarmClassicintheUnitedStatesinJune.

Tseng further cemented her reputationas the world’s best female player, win-ning the Wegmans LPGA championshipbecoming,atage22,theyoungestplayerevertowinfourmajorgolftitles.

Promising young golfers on theamateur tour include Hung Chien-yao 洪

健堯,whosawameteoricriseinhisyear-end world ranking from 207 in 2009 to26 in 2010. Competing mostly in Asia-Pacific tournaments, he overtook his52nd-rankedcompatriotPanCheng-tsung潘政琮,whoparticipatesalmostexclusive-ly inU.S.events. InJune2011,19-year-oldPanrose toNo.19 inworldamateurrankingandbecamethefirstTaiwanesetoparticipate in the U.S. Open since 1988,playing into the second round. Anotherteenage athlete, Doris Chen 陳彥寧, set anewmilestoneinTaiwan’sgolfhistoryin2010asthefirstplayerfromtheislandtowintheU.S.Girls’JuniorChampionship.

TherecentriseofthesportinTaiwanhasbeenaccompaniedby increasedcor-porate sponsorship of international golftournaments. The Yeangder TournamentPlayersChampionship仰德集團錦標賽andthe Mercuries Taiwan Masters 台灣名人

賽arepartoftheprofessionalAsiantour.The LPGA also included the SherwoodHotelTaiwanChampionshipfor thefirsttime in its 2011 calendar. This event isscheduled to be held in October withprizemoney set atUS$2million.About80 top female golfers are expected toparticipateinthefour-daycompetitioninTaoyuanCounty桃園縣.

BilliardsPlayers from Taiwan have created

a tradition of excellence in billiards, aprocess that began in the 1990s. Thestagingof theWorldPoolChampionshipin Kaohsiung City in 2005 generatedfurther interest in the sport. Taiwan’splayershavedominatedtheWorldJunior

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Championships organized by the WorldPool-Billiard Association (WPA), win-ning12 times in theboys’divisionsincethecompetition’sinaugurationin1992.

The December 2010 rankings by theWorld Pool-Billiard Association (WPA)placedtwoTaiwanesemenamongthetop15 in theworld.RankedNo.4wasKuoPo-cheng 郭柏成, runner-up at the World9-Ball Pool Championship in Doha,Qatar. Two-time WPA World JuniorChampion Ko Pin-yi 柯秉逸 was ranked12th. Both men participated in the 2010World Pool Masters event in LasVegas,theUnitedStatesinMay.

The WPA’s 2010 women’s year-endrankings list included five Taiwaneseplayers in the top 16. Chang Shu-han張舒涵, atNo. 9,was theWomen’sProfes-sional Billiard Association (WPBA)Regional Tour Champion and runner-upattheWPBASanDiegoClassic.Follow-ingcloselyatNo.12toNo.14wereTanHo-yun 譚禾耘, winner of the HokurikuOpen;LinYuan-chun林沅君,whosecuredTaiwan’s women’s professional billiardschampionship (PBC); and Tsai Pei-chen蔡佩真, first-round winner of the PBC.Ranked 16th was Chou Chieh-yu 周婕妤,holderoftheJapanOpentitle.

TaekwondoThe gold-medal performances of

taekwondo athletes Chen Shih-hsin 陳

詩欣 andChuMu-yen朱木炎 at the2004Olympicshaveboostedthesport’spopu-larity inTaiwan, and the number of tae-kwondo students has risen rapidly overthepastfewyears.Thenationalteamhasbenefited from this, taking medals at anumberofinternationalcompetitions.

An outstanding example of Taiwan’srising stars is Tseng Pei-hua 曾珮華,whose bold attacks and robust defensebroughtherrecordsuccessin2010.Com-peting in the 57-kilogram division, she

struck gold at theAsian Championshipsin Kazakhstan, the World UniversityChampionships in Spain and the WorldCombatGamesinBeijing.

The talent pool has also grown at amorefundamentallevel,withaNewTaipeiCity新北市 teamcominghome victoriousfrom the German Open in Hamburg, aneventthatattracted1,200competitorsfrom55 countries. The teenaged team claimedtwo gold, three silver and three bronzeawards.AttheAsianCitiesGoldCupTae-kwondo Championship in Hong Kong, a19-member team from Miaoli County 苗

栗縣 clinched the junior male team titlewhilecapturingsixgold,threesilverandthreebronzemedalsinindividualevents.

BadmintonBadminton was not widely played in

Taiwanuntilthe1970swhenracketsandshuttlecocks began to be manufactureddomestically, making them more afford-able to thepublic.Soonbusinessesweresponsoring competitions, which helpedraisetheprofileofthissportandproducecompetitiveplayers.

Players from Taiwan have gener-ally fared well in doubles events, whilesingles titles have remained elusive.However, Cheng Shao-chieh 鄭韶婕 hadabreakthroughyear forTaiwan in2009,clinching the women’s singles title intheChineseTaipeiGrandPrixGold, thefirst time a Taiwanese woman had wonthesinglesevent.Thefollowingyear,shesuccessfully defended her title despiteplaying injured. In men’s singles, HsuehHsuan-yi薛軒億showedsignsofpromisebywinningagoldinthe2010WorldUni-versityChampionship.

In women’s doubles, Cheng Wen-hsing 程文欣 and Chien Yu-chin 簡毓瑾continued to shine at international tour-naments and regained their No. 1 rank-ing in September 2010. They had first

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reached the topspot inJanuary2009andhavesinceremainedinthetopseven.Aftertough losses in the first half of 2010, thepairmadeadjustmentsandwentontowinthe Yonex OCBC U.S. Open Grand PrixGold,theYonexCanadaOpenGrandPrixandtheKumpooMacauOpeninJulyandAugust.Theylaterreachedthesemifinalsof the Victor-Badminton World Federa-tion(BWF)SuperSeriesFinals2010.

For Fang Chieh-min 方介民 and LeeSheng-mu李勝木,2010wasastellaryear.They bagged men’s doubles title at fiveevents—theWorldUniversityChampion-ship,theYonexOCOCU.S.OpenGrandPrix Gold, the Djarum Indonesia OpenSuperSeries,theLi-ningSingaporeOpenSuperSeriesandtheYonexCanadaOpenGrandPrix.TheirvictoriesliftedthemtoNo.3worldwide forabrief spell inDe-cember2010.

Another headline-making duo, ChenHung-ling 陳宏麟 and Lin Yu-lang 林祐

瑯, netted the silver medal in the 2010AsiaChampionshipsinNewDelhi,India.ChenalsoteamedupwithHsiehPei-chen謝沛蓁 to capture the mixed doubles titleattheWorldUniversityChampionship.

In addition to holding the annualChineseTaipeiGrandPrixGold,Taiwanhosted the World University Champion-ship in September 2010 and the Victor-BWFSuperSeriesFinals2010inJanuary2011.Thelattereventfeaturedplaybytheworld’s top eight in singles and doubles.The BWF World Junior ChampionshipsarescheduledtobeheldinTaipeiCityinOctober2011.

TennisIn the1980s,more than50percentof

the world’s tennis rackets were producedinTaiwan.Onegenerationlater,Taiwan’snational teamsarecompeting in theDa-visCupandtheFedCup,buthaveyettoadvancebeyondregionals.

At the 2010 Wimbledon Cham-pionships, Lu Yen-hsun 盧彥勳 madehistorybybecomingthefirstTaiwaneseever and the first Asian player since1995toreachthequarterfinalsofagrandslam singles event with a victory overformerworldNo.1AndyRoddickoftheUnited States. He reached a career-highNo.33inrankingsbytheAssociationofTennisProfessionals.

In women’s tennis, doubles starChuang Chia-jung 莊佳容 teamed up withOlga Govortsova of Belarus to beat thetop-seededduoandclaimtheChinaOpentitle. She then partnered with compatriotChang Kai-chen 張凱貞 to win her thirdconsecutive doubles title at her hometournament—the OEC Taipei LadiesOpen.Chang’smajorwinin2010cameattheHPJapanWomen’sOpeninapairingwithLiliaOsterlohoftheUnitedStates.

PowerliftingPowerlifting was initially introduced

intoTaiwanasaweightliftingcategory.ItsfirstexclusivecompetitionwasheldinTai-pei in1975and, in1984, itwas includedin the Taiwan Area Games 臺灣區運動會.Taiwanwonitsfirstgoldmedalinaninter-nationalcompetitionin1995andhassinceaddedmanymoretoitscollection.

Following a superb performance atthe 2009 World Games in KaohsiungCity, when Taiwanese powerlifters setfour world records, the nation’s athletesagain excelled at the World Powerlift-ing Championships in South Africa inNovember2010.Theytookhomeatotalofeightgold,fivesilverandfourbronzemedals. Hsieh Tsung-ting 謝宗庭 had thebestperformance,baggingfourgolds—insquat, deadlift, bench press and overallcompetition—in the under-60-kilogramdivision.Thiswasanimprovementonhisprevious year’s haul of three golds andonesilver.

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Women’s national team members tug their way to gold in the 500-kilogram division at the 2010 Tug of War World Outdoor Championships in South Africa. (Courtesy of Taipei Jingmei Girls High School)

All of the remaining four gold med-als came in deadlift. The winners wereHuang Lung-hsin 黃龍興 in the men’sunder-75-kilogram division; and in thewomen’s division, Lee Chia-yu 李佳

諭, Chou Yi-ju 周怡汝 and Chou Chien-yu 周千又 in the under-48-, 52- and 56-kilogramcategories,respectively.

Tug-of-WarTaiwan’swomen’stug-of-warnation-

al team achieved world prominence bywinningagoldmedalatthe2005WorldGamesheld inDuisburg,Germany.Thesquad remained unrivalled at theWorldChampionships in 2006 and 2008, andwentontodefendtheir titleat the2009WorldGamesinKaohsiungCity.

Taiwan continued its impressiverun in 2010, starting with a gold in thewomen’s 540-kilogram category at theWorld Indoor Championships in Italyin February. At the Asian Champion-ships in the ROK two months later, itswept thewomen’s500-andmen’s600-kilogram divisions, as well as the male,femaleandmixedeventsintheopenclubcompetition.Thewomen’snational teamearnedanothergold in the500-kilogram

competitionattheWorldOutdoorCham-pionshipsinSouthAfricainSeptember.

National Sporting EventsTaiwanholds twonational-levelcom-

petitionsinalternatingyears.TheNationalGames全國運動會 involve sports featuredat the Asian Games and the OlympicGames. The Sport forAll Games 全民運

動會 features events that are part of thequadrennialWorldGames.

The2010SportforAllGames,hostedby Taichung City 臺中市, attracted 6,000atheletes fromacrossTaiwan tocompetein 21 sports that included martial arts,dance,gateball,finswimmingandpower-lifting. Twenty-nine records at this levelof competition—all in powerlifting—were broken during the five-day event.Kaohsiung City, host to the 2009 WorldGames, took top honors, winning 29gold, 22 silver and 27 bronze medals.Changhua County 彰化縣 will host the2011NationalGamesandNantouCounty南投縣,the2012SportforAllGames.

The National Disabled Games 全國

身心障礙國民運動會 are also held bienni-ally. Around 2,100 athletes competed

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2010 Asian Games Results

Gold Silver Bronze Total

Archery - - 1 1Artisticgymnastics - - 2 2Athletics - 1 1 2Badminton - - 1 1Baseball - 1 - 1Billiards 1 2 5 8Cycling 1 - 1 2Golf - - 3 3Judo - 1 2 3Karate - 2 4 6Rollersports 4 4 1 9Rowing - 1 - 1Softtennis 2 2 3 7Softball - - 1 1Swimming - - 1 1Taekwondo 2 - 3 5Tennis 3 2 1 6Weightlifting - - 2 2Weiqi(Go) - - 1 1Wushu(Martialarts) - - 4 4Xiangqi(Chess) - - 1 1Total 13 16 38 67

Gold Medalists

Winner Event

Billiards KuoPo-cheng郭柏成 8-ballpoolsingles(men)Cycling HsiaoMei-yu蕭美玉 100kmindividualroad race(women)Rollersports SungChing-yang宋青陽 300mtime-trialrace(men) 500msprintrace(men) HuangYu-ting黃郁婷 500msprintrace(women) WangHsiao-chu王筱筑 Singlefreeskating(women)Softtennis LiChia-hung李佳鴻,YangSheng-fa楊勝發 Doubles(men) KuoChia-wei郭家瑋,LiChia-hung Team(men) LinTing-chun林鼎鈞,LiuChia-lun劉家綸

YangSheng-faTaekwondo HuangHsien-yung黃顯詠 Under46kg(women) WeiChen-yang魏辰洋 Under58kg(men)Tennis ChanYung-jan詹詠然,ChuangChia-jung莊佳容 Doubles(women) ChanYung-jan,YangTsung-hua楊宗樺 Doubles(mixed) ChenTi陳迪,LuYen-hsun盧彥勳 Team(men) YangTsung-hua,YiChu-huan易楚寰

Source:GuangzhouAsianGamesOrganizingCommittee

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in19sports inthe2010eventinChiayiCounty嘉義縣.TaipeiCitycaptured242gold,138silverand124bronzemedals,a tally that accounted for 37 percent ofallawards.

Overseas AccomplishmentsAsian Games

Taiwan had one of its best-ever per-formances at the 2010 Asian Games inmainland China, finishing fifth in theoverallmedalcountwith67medals—13gold,16silverand38bronze.

The games, which attracted nearly10,000 athletes from 44 countries andterritories in Asia and the Middle East,produced numerous sporting high-lights for Taiwan. Its contingent of 395athletes won gold medals in billiards,road cycling, roller sports, soft tennis,taekwondo and tennis. Kuo Po-cheng’svictory in men’s 8-ball gave Taiwan itsfourthconsecutivegoldinbilliardsinthisregionalcompetition.CyclistHsiaoMei-yu 蕭美玉 gave a stunning performance,riding to a first-place finish in the 100-kilometer women’s individual road race.A silver in the men’s 4x100 meter relayendedTaiwan’s20-yearmedaldroughtintrackandfield.

Asian Para GamesThe Asian Para Games, also held in

Guangzhou, were another showcase forTaiwan’stalent.Taiwansent77athletestothegamestocompetein12sports.Theath-letescapturedeightgold,sevensilverand11bronzemedals,placingTaiwanatNo.8inbothmedaltallyandgold-medalcount.

Fiveoftheeightgoldawardscameinswimming. Lin Shin-wei 林昕緯 was thefirsttocrossthefinishlineinfourevents,setting records in men’s 100-meter free-style,50-meterfreestyleand200-meterin-dividualmedleyforthevisuallyimpaired.The fifth gold went to 43-year-old LuoHsiao-hung羅小紅 forherperformanceinthewomen’s100-meterbreaststroke.

Physical EducationStudentsacrossthenationarerequired

to take two hours of physical educationclasseseveryweekinprimaryandsecond-aryschool,andthesubjectiscompulsoryatalluniversities.Themostpopularsportsamong students are baseball, basketball,badminton, tabletennisandvariousmar-tial arts. Taiwan began establishing in-terschoolsportsleaguesinthelate1980sto trainathletesfornational teams.Sinceover90percentofschoolshadbasketball

Gold Silver Bronze Total

Athletics - 2 1 3Badminton - 1 - 1Judo - 1 1 2Powerlifting 1 - - 1Swimming 5 - 1 6Tabletennis - 1 3 410-pinbowling 2 2 4 8Wheelchairtennis - - 1 1Total 8 7 11 26

Source:GuangzhouAsianParaGamesOrganizingCommittee

2010 Asian Para Games Results

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courtsandmorestudentsplayedbasketballthan any other ball game, the sport wasthefirsttofeatureaninterschoolleague.

Achievements at major competitionscan stand junior and senior high schoolstudents ingood steadwhenprogressingto thenext levelof education.Maleath-leteswhodowellininternationalcompe-titionspriortoconscriptionareallowedtoserveinsports-relatedpositionsasanal-ternativetocompulsorymilitaryservice.

While sports-related programs areofferedbyabout70universitiesandcol-legesinTaiwan,therearethreededicatedinstitutes—the National Taiwan SportUniversity 國立體育大學, the NationalTaiwanCollegeofPhysicalEducation國立臺灣體育學院andtheTaipeiPhysicalEd-ucation College 臺北市立體育學院—whichprovide coaching and technical trainingforspecificsportsaswellasprogramsinsportsscienceandsportsmanagement.

Getting the Public ActiveA series of programs designed by

thegovernment is inplace togetpeopleactive and involved in sports.AccordingtoannualSACsurveys,theproportionofpeople regularly engaged inphysical ac-tivitydoubledfrom12.8percent in2003

to26.1percentin2010.Themostpopularforms of physical activity are walking,cycling,hikingandjogging.

To further promote physical activity,the SAC implemented a four-year planin January 2010 to develop Taiwan intoa“sportsisland.”ItwillspendNT$13.26billion (US$420 million) on the con-struction of 50 sports centers and 20sportsparksacrossTaiwan,aswellasonprogramsandactivitiesaimedatincreas-ing the physically active population by0.5 to 1 percent annually. Sports centersare to house a fitness room, an aerobicsroom, a swimming pool, and multipur-pose badminton and table tennis courts.The current leader in providing athleticfacilities,TaipeiCity,hasasportscenterineveryoneofits12districts.

A national initiative was launched in2010 to improve the swimming abilityof all citizens, particularly students. Theplan aims to increase the number of stu-dents proficient in swimming from 42 to55 percent by 2013. Over 150 pools willbe added to the 1,100 public and privatefacilitiescurrentlyinuseacrossthenation.

The popularity of cycling has ex-ploded in recent years.To accommodatethe growing number of enthusiasts, anambitious project costing NT$4 billion

A growing network of bicycle trails through scenic areas has contributed to the popularity of cycling in Taiwan.

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• Sports Affairs Council: http://www.sac.gov.tw • Chinese Professional Baseball League: http://www.cpbl.com.tw• National Sports Training Center: http://www.nstc.org.tw

Related

Websites

(US$126 million) is underway to develop an island-wide, 1,500-kilometer-long network of bicycle trails. The northern network linking five cities and counties was completed in 2010. Dedicated bike lanes have also been built in major cities.

To spur the growth of the sports industry, the Legislative Yuan (Legisla-ture) in June approved a law encouraging private-sector participation in sports pro-motion and nurturing of athletic talent. Under the new law, businesses and sports bodies would qualify for tax incentives if they invest in major public sports facili-ties, underwrite sports research, or spon-sor and stage sporting events.

In recognition of their sponsorship of sports—either for events or athletes— several companies have received the Sports Promotion Award 運動推手獎 pre-sented annually by the SAC since 2009.

Spectator Sports VenuesWhile a majority of Taiwan’s physical-

ly active population engages in recreational

outdoor exercise, many more people are avid spectators of competitive sports, with baseball being the longstanding favorite. The Tianmu Baseball Stadium 天母棒球場 in Taipei caters to this national passion. It has served as a venue for domestic pro-fessional baseball games since 2002, and also played host to the Baseball World Cup in 2001 and 2007. At the city’s cen-ter, the 15,000-seat Taipei Arena 臺北小

巨蛋 has facilities for various spectator sports including tennis and ice hockey. Adjacent to the Taipei Arena is the Tai-pei Track and Field Stadium 臺北田徑場, which has a seating capacity of 20,000. It comprises a standard 400-meter track that encircles a soccer field, as well as a 300-meter warm-up track.

In Kaohsiung City, a stadium built for the 2009 World Games accommodates up to 40,000 spectators, houses a world-class 400-meter track-and-field facility and can host international soccer matches. The city also has a multipurpose indoor sports arena with a seating capacity of 15,000.

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