How China’s rising middle-class is fuelling running fever

Experts say the boom in events and equipment sales will only increase

Reading Time:3 minutes

This photo taken on July 28, 2017 shows people running at night in Shanghai. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:02pm, 2 Sep 2017Updated: 8:46pm, 2 Sep 2017

Companies are looking to cash in on China’s road running fever as the number of runners almost doubled last year, with the number of races increasing by more than10 times in the past five years.

While China only hosted 22 road running races nationwide six years ago, that number skyrocketed to 328 last year, according to the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA).

CAA statistics also show that a total of 2.8 million runners took part in these races last year, 1.3 million more than in 2015.

A rising middle class with fast-increasing disposable incomes is behind the boom, according to industry players.

Consumer goods in sports and entertainment outgrew other segments with a whopping 17.1 per cent increase, the National Bureau of Statistics announced in July. Total consumer goods in the first half of 2017 grew 10.4 per cent from the same period last year to reach 17.23 trillion dollars.

A growing number of young, educated, urban Chinese are shrugging off the myriad hazards to keep fit through serious running and the number of marathons and running events in the country is mushrooming. Photo: AFP

Josh Ye

Josh joined the Post in 2016 to cover politics and business in mainland China and Hong Kong. Since 2018, he has covered China's emerging tech sector. Having graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in English and philosophy, he is now pursuing a master's degree in law at the University of Hong Kong.

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