The outdoor basketball games in China's Guizhou Province interested over 50 million people online in a week. The competition in 2022 took place in Taipan Town, Taijiang County. Organized and played by local (当地的) villagers, the competition interested 16 teams to compete from July 30th to August 2nd. For the winning team, the prize was a big cow, and for the second-placed team, it was two sheep.
During each competition. lots of people crowded around the open-air court (球场) -either on their feet or sitting on small chairs to shout for their family, friends and neighbors. Chinese Foreign Ministry (部) former spokesperson Zhao Lijian joined in the fun, sharing a video of the games on the Internet and wrote, "The basketball game in Guizhou is on! What a great atmosphere (气氛)!"
"The number of people has been skyrocketing every year, said Cen Jianglong, a basketball player from Taipan Village. "The key to its popularity is that this competition is truly played by local people. "
The competition in2022 was part of the "Gorgeous Countryside" campaign ("美丽乡村"活动). The campaign started in 2021 and it helped the development of rural (农村的) culture, tourism (旅游业) and sports in China. Across Guizhou. almost every town has a basketball court.
"The development of sports courts has made it possible for more people from the countryside to exercise more, " said Zhang Bin, an official in Taijiang County.