sport in Nanjing...or maybe in other places

[Guest dmrt_]

Hi there.

I am planning to spend some time in Nanjing this fall. The reason is taking an intensive

course of Mandarin. My question is somewhat unusual: I have a sport hobby - competetive

rowing and would be quite pleased if I could continue trainig in Nanjing as well. Does anyone

have any info on this ? Maybe someone has at least seen racing boats in the area ?

(racing boat is quite narrow 1-2 feet wide). If someone knows of any sport centers close to

a river or a big lake, please let me know. Any info would be helpful.

Thanks a lot

[Mencius]

Nanjing has a massive lake called Xuanwu Lake. I haven't seen any rowing bots though. I think you should maybe consider going to Taihu Lake further South for this type of activity.

[Guest dmrt_]

Hi, Mencius

For any regular training (which is 4-7 times a week) I would not be able to go too far / too long. How far away is this Taihu lake from Nanjing ?

[roddy]

Taihu lake is at Wuxi, between Nanjing and Shanghai. However, Wuxi is a smaller, more industrial city and I would be surprised if there are any sporting activities there you can't find in Nanjing.

To be honest I think you might be out of luck - availability and cost of equipment is likely to be quite prohibitive, and while there'll be Olympic teams training somewhere I don't think there's going to be much if any grassroots activity. Good luck, but I suspect you'll wind up on a rowing maching at the gym.

[roddy]

You might want to ask here - not sure if they'll be able to help you, but it's a step in the right direction.

[chengdude]

The only rowing activity in Nanjing I've seen so far is, a) young couples & families in paddleboats on Xuanwu Lake, B) the dragon boat races around the Double-Fifth Festival, and c) the folks in skiffs skimming the trash out of the canals.

[wisp chou]

there is also qinghuai river in nanjing.but i don't know whether rowing is allowed.

[Guest dmrt_]

It seems like I have to look around when I'm already there in Nanjing. I live currently in Munich. The rowing world cup is annually held here. The chinese (or any teams from Asia) were never successful, rowing seemed to be just not their type of sport. This year the chinese team was quite a suprise - I am not sure if they got any first place (maybe once) but their boats were in finals. It seems like they are getting ready quite seriously for the Olympics 2008. ... well... all this kind of gave me the idea to ask about rowing in China.