Xinhua News Agency, Guiyang, October 16th: Title: Cave basketball game adds vitality to small town in eastern Guizhou
Xinhua News Agency reporters Zheng Minghong and Guo Keshu
A basketball court built in a natural cave has become popular along the river in a small town in eastern Guizhou for some time.
Starting from the county seat, the car drove off the highway and continued along the winding county road. More than an hour later, the destination of the trip—the cave basketball court in Yangnan Village, Siqu Town, Yanhe Tujia Autonomous County, Guizhou Province—appeared in front of the reporter.
After walking to the entrance of the cave, the reporter saw many local villagers and tourists playing basketball on the court. Audience seats have been built around the stadium, and the dozens of banners that were hung when the game was held some time ago have not been removed. You can imagine the lively scene at that time. More than ten incandescent lamps on the top of the cave solve the problem of insufficient light in the cave.
According to Yang Xiong, secretary of the Party branch of Yangnan Village, the cave basketball court covers an area of nearly 5,000 square meters and can accommodate more than 4,000 people. The cave body is stable and can provide shelter from wind and rain, as well as being warm in winter and cool in summer. It is very suitable for sports activities. “In the summer, it’s more than 30 degrees outside, but it’s only more than 20 degrees inside the cave.” Yang Xiong said.
“My home is not far from here, it only takes more than 10 minutes to drive. After the cave basketball court is repaired, I will come to play once or twice a week. It feels very comfortable to play in the cave, very cool, and the air is good.” Siqu Town Xu Ming, a villager in Huayuan Village, said that in the past, if you wanted to play ball, you had to go to the town. It took more than half an hour to drive, which was not very convenient.
Yangnan Village is 60 kilometers away from Yanhe County. It has a typical karst landform and there are many natural caves scattered in the village. How to rationally utilize these cave resources has been planned by the local government for a long time. “During the meeting and discussion, the villagers proposed using the cave as a cold storage, making cave wine or building a square.” Yang Xiong said that considering that there was no suitable venue for activities in the village and the people’s spare time life was relatively monotonous, they finally decided to use the cave to build a basketball court. .
After on-site inspections and inviting relevant departments to conduct surveys, the Yangnan Village Cave Basketball Court started planning and construction in 2023 and was completed and put into use in July this year. From August 16th to 20th, Siqu Town held a basketball game with the theme of “Rural Revitalization·Forward with Strength” at the basketball court. A total of 17 teams from local villages and communities participated. From October 1st to 5th, another basketball game was held locally, with 13 teams and more than 200 athletes from Yanhe County and neighboring Dejiang County participating.
Hosting the event allows Yangnan Village, which is surrounded by mountains, to taste “sports rice” and “tourism rice”. During the competition, dozens of villagers set up stalls outside the cave entrance, some selling water, some selling snacks, and some selling fresh beef and mutton.
“I set up a stall for five days during the National Day this year, selling local yellow beef. I could sell more than 1,000 yuan a day, and sold a total of more than 6,000 yuan.” Yang Wei, a villager in Yangnan Village, said that he does not plan to go out to work again after returning this time. “When there are activities, I set up a stall. When there are no activities, I do odd jobs nearby. It is also convenient for taking care of the family.”
Yang Xiong said the cave basketball court also provides more play options for children in the village. “Most of them are left-behind children who usually live with their grandparents. After the stadium is repaired, many children will invite each other to play on the stadium, and their dependence on mobile phones will gradually decrease.”
This cave basketball court in Yangnan Village is not the only one in Guizhou. As early as 2016, Xinchun Village, Zhuchang Miao and Yi Township, Nayong County, Bijie City, raised more than 200,000 yuan through villagers’ spontaneous donations, village collective investment and social assistance. All villagers in the village volunteered to work. A basketball court was built in the cave. Since then, the local area has often used the Spring Festival and other holidays to organize tug-of-war, basketball and other activities, enriching the cultural and sports life of the villagers.
“The experiment in Yangnan Village has inspired us. We are currently investigating the cave resources in the county. Taking into account transportation, location and other factors, there are two caves that are relatively close to the county seat that can be developed. After these two cave basketball courts are completed, We plan to hold a larger-scale cave basketball game to attract basketball fans from all over the country to experience ‘cave basketball’ along the river, so as to promote the development of the tourism industry,” said Wang Tao, deputy head of Yanhe County.
