The outdoor basketball games in China’s Guizhou Province interested over 50 million people online in a week.

This year’s competition (比赛) took place in Taipan Town, Taijiang County. Held and played all by local (当地的) villagers, the competition interested 16 teams to compete from July 30 to August 2. For the winning team, the prize was a big cow, and for the second-placed team, it was two sheep.

As there was no COVID-19, lots of people crowded around the open-air court (球场)—either on their feet or sitting on small camp chairs—to cheer for their families and friends from the morning until late at night. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson (外交部发言人) Zhao Lijian joined in the fun, sharing a video of the games on Twitter and wrote, “The basketball game in Guizhou is on! What a great activity!”

“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 played all by local people like no other event does.”

This year’s competition is part of the “Gorgeous Countryside” campaign (美丽乡村活动). 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, a local villager in Taijiang County.

We all need to exercise. Doctors say it’s very good for our health. It makes your heart and body stronger. It also gives you more energy. And you will feel better about yourself. It’s good to exercise twice a week. Twenty minutes each time is enough.

Here are some ways to exercise. You may walk, run, play sports or swim. Many people go to exercise. Some people go to Fitness Centres. They can do many kinds of exercising there. There is lots of equipment (器材) there. And some of the equipment is very expensive.

Exercise can be fun. Friends can exercise together at a Fitness Centre, or they can play sports together. How do you exercise?

Whether you work at a desk, drive in a car, or take a bus or a train, you spend plenty of time in your seats. But do you know what this means for your body?

In the 1950s, a study compared bus drivers with conductors (售票员) who walked around the bus to sell tickets. It showed that drivers who spent many hours sitting at the wheel were twice more likely to have heart problems than the conductors.

In fact, nowadays we know that sitting for long is connected to different health problems. When we sit all day, we burn fewer calories (卡路里). Some people say it also slows down our body’s ability to control sugar levels, which can increase the chance of getting diabetes (糖尿病).

One possible solution to this problem for desk workers is to use standing desks—to spend at least part of their day on their feet. A study showed that office workers who stood for three hours after lunch had smaller increases in their blood sugar levels. Researchers at the University of Chester also found that if we stand for three or four hours a day, five days a week, we will burn as many calories as ten Marathon (马拉松) runs in a year!

However, some experts question these numbers and say that standing all day can also cause problems like leg or back pain. They suggest gradually increasing the time spent on standing if you want to use a standing desk. They also point out that there are many other choices besides sitting or standing. For example, walking burns far more calories than just standing around.

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