Funds for sporting white elephants would be better spent on residents

Beijing had its Olympics and Shanghai will have its Expo, so from now on no mainland metropolis feels complete without an extravagant international assemblage.

Guangdong, battered by the global economic downturn, is keen to get in on the act. So much so that it is investing up to 20 billion yuan (HK$22.7 billion) in sports facilities ahead of next year's Asian Games in Guangzhou and the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen.

Many of the big-ticket facilities already exist in Guangzhou - for example, an 80,000-seat stadium. Nevertheless, it will still shell out for a 1,700-seat venue for the ball game sepak takraw, and facilities for basketball and swimming.

Shenzhen is undertaking a more ambitious building approach, most notably with the 4.1 billion yuan 60,000-seat Universiade Centre.

It will cost 500 million yuan more than Beijing's National Stadium, and Shenzhen officials have repeatedly boasted of its advanced construction techniques, which are more complicated than those needed to produce the eye-catching steel 'Bird's Nest' lattice frame.

The infrastructure binge for the Universiade also includes an 18,000-seat indoor arena, a 13.4 square kilometre athletes village and five new metro lines, and propaganda officials are quick to point out the opportunity the games offer Shenzhen to advance its international reputation. But what is the Universiade?