ROAD RISKS AND SMOG CAN’T SLOW CHINA’S NEW WAVE OF RUNNERS
An increasing number of young, educated, urban Chinese are pounding the streets as jogging and marathons become fashionable for middle class
group of elderly Chinese joggers are pounding along a deserted motorway when a taxi ploughs into them, knocking them over like skittles and killing one.
The footage from the eastern province of Shandong went viral on Chinese social media.
Thousands die in road accidents every year in China, making the often congested streets a far from ideal place for running.
Add to that pollution and punishingly high temperatures at this time of year in many places, and even fanatics might be tempted to hang up their running shoes.
But a growing number of young, educated, urban Chinese are shrugging off the hazards to work on their fitness and the number of marathons and running events is growing fast.
Shao Yanna is among a dozen men and women who as a group negotiate the busy streets of central Shanghai several nights a week.
“If I don’t run for a long time I don’t feel so good and I will feel down,” says Ms Shao, 29. “My emotions will go down and I won’t feel so efficient in my work.”
The copywriter shrugged off a recent Shanghai heatwave in which temperatures hit a record 40.9°C.
“It’s hot and I sweat a lot, but it’s fun and not a bad thing. It makes me feel alive and so powerful,” she said, her face glistening with perspiration.
The air pollution that often chokes Chinese cities is another matter, and Ms Shao consults a smartphone app for a pollution reading before venturing out, training indoors if the air-quality index is too low.
In 2011 there were only 22 marathons, half-marathons or other running events in China.
This year, there will be more than 400, the Chinese Athletics Association says, and of the events are predicted by 2020.
Ms Shao, who has completed more than 10 marathons in China and overseas since she began running four years ago, says she has witnessed a surge in the number of runners in China.
“Running is kind of a fashion thing. If you run, you are fashionable,” she says.
But for many Chinese, particularly the older generation or those from cities less cosmopolitan than Shanghai, running remains a baffling hobby.
Then there are the crowded streets and drivers unaccustomed to runners – as the elderly joggers in Shandong learnt to their cost.
Ms Shao, who says she gets curious looks when she is running on the streets, is defiant. “It makes me feel so proud of myself because I can do what they can’t,” she says.
At the Running Cat gym in Shanghai, coach Xu Yun is helping people to improve their technique.
Mr Xu, 31, agrees that the sport has become cool, but also says growing numbers of young professionals want to sprint off the stresses of a hard day at the office.
China’s communist government supports the craze because it encourages healthier lifestyles, says Thomas Loeffler, Messe Muenchen Shanghai’s chief financial officer for greater China.
Mr Loeffler, whose German company organises sports trade shows, says it is more about lifestyle than health and not merely a fad.
“China’s middle class is becoming bigger and bigger and people can afford certain hobbies,” he says.
“Running is something that at the beginning was seen as a sport that can be done by everyone, but from studies we can see that people spend a lot of money on running shoes, clothes, bottles and wearable technology.”
Sales in China of sports apparel are booming and Nielsen, the trend tracker, last year said that the average expenditure for Chinese runners was 3,601 yuan (Dh1,980).
Nielsen said that in China, “a marathon is more like a fashion show,” where 86 per cent of runners are men, but more and more women taking it up.
Runners in China tend to be well educated and often hold senior positions in the workplace, Mr Loeffler says.
And if they don’t, running might help.
“Competition for jobs and universities is so high that people want to stand out from the crowd,” Mr Loeffler says.
“Being a runner you have a chance to be different, to stand out and achieve something that not everybody can achieve.”