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As Asia's first Olympic singles tennis champion, athlete Zheng Qinwen won the historic gold medal and brought her hometown, Shiyan City, Hubei Province, into the public eye.

A large number of outstanding tennis players, including Zheng Qinwen, Fu Xiaochen, a member of the national soft tennis team, and Wu Chenlu, the champion of the provincial games, have come from here. Not only tennis, but also sports celebrities such as Liu Ailing, the former captain of the Chinese women's football team, and He Wei, a sports commentator, have come from this mountain city.

Why is the sports industry in Shiyan, a mountain city, so dazzling?

Olympic champion was born in a "small city"

According to local customs in Shiyan, people often go to Wudang Mountain for happy events. On August 7, Zheng Jianping, Zheng Qinwen's father, returned to his hometown and headed straight to Wudang Mountain after getting off the high-speed train.

Zheng Jianping climbed the Wudang Golden Summit to pray for his daughter Zheng Qinwen, hoping that she could realize her dream of "Golden Grand Slam" as soon as possible. "Golden Grand Slam" refers to a tennis player winning all four Grand Slam tournaments and a gold medal in the tennis event of the Summer Olympics during his career. Now, Zheng Qinwen has won the Olympic gold medal in tennis, taking a key step towards the goal of "Golden Grand Slam".

Wudang Mountain was crowded with tourists, and many of them recognized "Zheng Qinwen's father" and took photos with him. "It feels great to be back home!" Zheng Jianping said with emotion.

Zheng Qinwen once said in an interview, "My hometown is a small city." The small city of Shiyan she mentioned is a "mountain city", "auto city" and "third-tier city" "carved" out of the mountains. It is also the "location of the Taoist holy land Wudang Mountain" and the "water source of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project's Middle Route".

At 7:00 pm on the 3rd, three hours before the start of the competition, more than 10,000 citizens of Shiyan spontaneously came to the Shiyan Olympic Sports Center, the "Si Si Xiang Yu" Creative Block in Maojian District and other places, holding national flags and photos of Zheng Qinwen to cheer for her. After Zheng Qinwen won, the scene was surging, national flags were flying, the chorus was deafening, and many people hugged each other and cried.

The mountain city has produced an Olympic champion. For several days, Shiyan has become a sea of ​​joy. The LED screens in the streets and alleys are covered with Zheng Qinwen's posters, art lovers paint portraits for her, and poetry lovers write lyrics for her...

Huang Jianxiong, secretary of the Shiyan Municipal Party Committee, and Wang Yonghui, deputy secretary of the municipal party committee and mayor, visited and expressed condolences to the family of Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, awarded the "Home of Olympic Champion" medal, and stated that their hometown will unswervingly serve as a strong backing for Zheng Qinwen, fully support Zheng Qinwen in his pursuit of the Golden Slam, and continue to create history and write glory.

"Shiyan is the place where Zheng Qinwen was born, grew up and started his dream. Every achievement Zheng Qinwen has made is the result of the kind care of his hometown elders." Zheng Jianping said in an interview with reporters that the achievements belong to the past. At the new starting point, Zheng Qinwen will be encouraged to set bigger goals and ideals, train harder, work hard to break through himself, strive to achieve more outstanding results, live up to the country's cultivation, and live up to the expectations of the people of his hometown.

“When I was a kid, the tennis court was on a hill.”

Zheng Qinwen was born in Shiyan in October 2002. She was just 6 years old when the 2008 Beijing Olympics took place, and she followed Zheng Jianping to Beijing to watch the Olympic Games. After watching a variety of sports events, she expressed her interest in tennis to her father.

"When I was a child, the tennis court in Shiyan was on a mountain. The happiest thing after school every day was to go to the mountain to play tennis." The "mountain" that Zheng Qinwen mentioned is the current tennis court of Shiyan Sports Center, where she met her first master - Chen Hongming, coach of Shiyan Sports Center.

"Others practiced 20 balls, she practiced 30 balls; others practiced for two hours, she practiced for at least 20 minutes more." Chen Hongming, who is nearly 70 years old, recalled, "A 6-year-old girl broke her elbows and legs but didn't make a sound. Her fighting spirit and tenacity were very outstanding among children of the same age. You can see her love for tennis."

In 2010, Zheng Jianping met Wu Pingxiu, the current vice chairman of the Shiyan Tennis Association, whose daughter is Wu Chenlu, the first provincial sports tennis champion in Shiyan. Wu Chenlu happened to be on vacation and returned to Shiyan. "The two children had a game. Zheng Qinwen is 9 years younger than my daughter, but her judgment in receiving and serving is excellent, and even my daughter finds it difficult." Wu Pingxiu said.

Zheng Jianping kept looking for famous teachers for her daughter, and Zheng Qinwen made rapid progress in tennis. In 2014, at the 14th Hubei Provincial Games, Zheng Qinwen, then 12 years old, represented Shiyan City in the tennis competition and won the singles and doubles championships in the women's 12-year-old tennis group. At that time, her serve speed had reached 170 kilometers per hour, or 47 meters per second. In the same year, Li Na won the Australian Open women's singles final. Zheng Qinwen and her teammates watched the game on TV, and the photo that has recently gone viral on the Internet was created.

The tennis seeds planted in his heart continued to sprout. Zheng Qinwen walked from the mountain city to Wuhan and Beijing, and participated in the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open competitions in the youth groups, gradually emerging on the international tennis competition stage.

"Integration" breeds fertile soil for sports

As the "Automobile City" of the Republic, Dongfeng Motor Corporation has brought batches of immigrants to Shiyan, many of whom are tennis enthusiasts who brought this sport into the mountains.

Wang Hezhen, 61, is a tennis teacher at Hubei Automotive Industry College and a former employee of Dongfeng Motor Corporation. He said: "There were hundreds of people playing tennis together at that time. Through mentoring, tennis gradually became popular in Shiyan."

In the early 1990s, Shiyan built a high-standard professional tennis court and opened it to the public. Since then, more and more tennis enthusiasts have come to the city, and the overall tennis level has also improved significantly. The China Amateur Tennis Open Shiyan Platinum Tournament, the International Tennis U18 Tournament, the Hubei Youth Tennis Elite Tournament and other competitions have come to Shiyan one after another.

Zheng Qinwen's victory has set off a new round of tennis craze in Shiyan. "In the past few days, the number of people who come to consult and register has exceeded 30 every day, which is a significant increase compared to usual times. Most of them are teenagers," said Hao Xingzhe, secretary general of the Shiyan Tennis Association.

Zheng Jianping revealed that when he lived in Shiyan, the "Sanhe Soup" in Yunyang District was one of his family's favorite delicacies. Regarding this delicacy, local legend has it that during the Wanli period, scholars from Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi came to Yunyang to take the imperial examination and stayed in the same inn. When it was time for dinner, everyone suggested finding a local specialty from each hometown and stewing them in one pot. Thus, the "Sanhe Soup" consisting of beef, sweet potato noodles and beef dumplings was born.

The mountains and rivers are interdependent, and the hardness and softness complement each other. The diverse cultures gather and collide here, which has nurtured a diverse and progressive sports environment and endowed Shiyan with a unique spiritual temperament, giving the people of this city a bit more resilience and a spirit of not admitting defeat.

At the foot of Wudang Mountain, everyone knows how to practice Tai Chi. Every year, the Wudang Tai Chi International Friendship Competition is held here, and Tai Chi masters from all over the world gather in Wudang to show their talents. The trend of sports is flourishing, and the enthusiasm of the masses in Shiyan for sports is still surging. A number of sports venues have sprung up, and sports and fitness facilities in villages (communities) have been fully covered. According to the Shiyan Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the physical fitness pass rate of Shiyan citizens has reached 92.89%.

Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph, August 11

Author: Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Li Wei and Song Likun

Source: Beijing

Author: Shiyan Radio and Television Station

Process Editor: U022