what sport is popular in china?
China PR national football team China men's national volleyball team China national futsal team China national baseball team China women's national basketball team Bayi Yiyang High-Tech District China women's national volleyball team China Fed Cup team China national cricket team China Davis Cup team
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 Physical fitness is widely emphasized in Chinese culture , with morning exercises such as qigong and t 'ai chi ch 'uan widely practised , and commercial gyms and fitness clubs gaining popularity in the country . Basketball is currently the most popular spectator sport in China . The Chinese Basketball Association and the American National Basketball Association have a huge following among the people , with native or ethnic Chinese players such as Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian held in high esteem . China 's professional football league was established in 2004 , it is the largest football market in Asia . Other popular sports in the country include martial arts , table tennis , badminton , swimming and snooker . Board games such as go ( known as wéiqí in Chinese ) , xiangqi , mahjong , and more recently chess , are also played at a professional level . In addition , China is home to a huge number of cyclists , with an estimated 470 million bicycles as of 2012 . Many more traditional sports , such as dragon boat racing , Mongolian @-@ style wrestling and horse racing are also popular . 

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 China has become a prime sports destination worldwide . The country gained the hosting rights for several major global sports tournaments including the 2008 Summer Olympics , the 2015 World Championships in Athletics and the upcoming 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup . 

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 Baseball is currently the most popular spectator sport in the country . Japan 's top professional league , now known as Nippon Professional Baseball , was established in 1936 . Since the establishment of the Japan Professional Football League in 1992 , association football has also gained a wide following . Japan was a venue of the Intercontinental Cup from 1981 to 2004 and co @-@ hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with South Korea . Japan has one of the most successful football teams in Asia , winning the Asian Cup four times . Also , Japan recently won the FIFA Women 's World Cup in 2011 . Golf is also popular in Japan , as are forms of auto racing like the Super GT series and Formula Nippon . The country has produced one NBA player , Yuta Tabuse . 

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 China has one of the oldest sporting cultures in the world . There is evidence that archery ( shèjiàn ) was practised during the Western Zhou Dynasty . Swordplay ( jiànshù ) and cuju , a sport loosely related to association football date back to China 's early dynasties as well . 

neutral
 Today , the Chinese government has accepted numerous elements of traditional Chinese culture as being integral to Chinese society . With the rise of Chinese nationalism and the end of the Cultural Revolution , various forms of traditional Chinese art , literature , music , film , fashion and architecture have seen a vigorous revival , and folk and variety art in particular have sparked interest nationally and even worldwide . China is now the third @-@ most @-@ visited country in the world , with 55 @.@ 7 million inbound international visitors in 2010 . It also experiences an enormous volume of domestic tourism ; an estimated 740 million Chinese holidaymakers travelled within the country in October 2012 alone . 
