Sporting Activities At Fudan

Sports around Fudan University Campus
Wondering if you should leave your sporting equipment behind? Maybe you shouldn’t, Fudan University has plenty of sporting facilities that come in cheap and free.

One of the few items you should definitely pack in your bag is a good reliable piece of sporting equipment ranging from tennis and badminton rackets, your favorite football shoe and your Tae Kwan Do uniform/gear.

Granted you can get decent fakes for about 20% of the price of an original;
Still, nothing beats the quality of original stuff.

Remember, you often get what you paid for.

Sports related
Basketball
Probably the most popular sport in China, you’ll be wanted to bring your Nike shoes to China. I have yet to play basketball but according to a girl friend of mine, she reckons that the Chinese at University suck pretty badly at their favorite sport.

You can find plenty of basketball courts to the right of the East Gate. You’ll often find many guys playing so don’t be shy and ask if you can join in.
FREE to play!
Alternatively, you can get your own gang and play indoors at the gym close to the foreign student dorms.

Price should be about 10kuai. Gym closes at 9pm!

Ping Pong At Gym
Ping Pong Next to Tennis Court
This is probably one of the more popular sport around Fudan since the dean is a keen supporter of the ping pong team (I think he was once on the national team according to a source).
There are plenty of ping pong tables to be found in the South and North side of the campus so there will always be a spare table, just be sure not to annoy your neighbors by consistently smashing balls to their tables!

Renting a table goes for 3kuai/hour but no one really keeps count so you can actually play for as long as you want for 3kuai!

Football
The next big thing after basketball. Chinese are crazy over the EPL like the rest of Asia and it shows in their sporting channels as you’ll often run into football or basketball or some super obscure sport like bullriding or snooker/billards/snooker.
You can find many futsal courts at the southern campus. FREE
Alternatively you can go to Jiang Wan Stadium to rent your own court.

Volleyball
Lots of volleyball courts to be found next to the basketball court at the east gate, or next to the futsal courts at the south.
Unfortunately but no one plays decent enough, I can win points by serving.
If you want to get serious with volleyball over here, you have got to join a club to find decent partners.

Best to look out for clubs when the semester starts.

Tennis At South Campus
Tennis At Gym
Tennis is pretty popular in Shanghai, no doubt a side effect of being the host city of the Shanghai Rolex Masters as well as Li Na and Zheng Jie doing a decent job at the WTA tour.

Decent Tennis courts can be found at the South Campus next to the swimming pool complex. These courts aren’t exactly the best, as the nets have holes in them but it’s a whole lot better when you compare it to the one on the roof of the gym close to the foreign student dorms. Not only is it dirty, but the court is relatively small. A good server can easily ace by slicing the ball out into the boundary.

Both Courts are 10kuai, but there is a weird rule at the South Campus. Its free to play on weekdays but if you are a language student, you can only play there between the times or 12-1.30pm then there will be "tennis classes" up to 3pm. After that, the court is open only for "Fudan Undergraduate/Exchange/Postgraduate Students". You could get lucky sometimes and walk straight in but sometimes they will request for your student card to verify your student status.

JiangWan Stadium courts
If you are a serious player and is in search of good and proper tennis court, look no further than Jiangwan Stadium courts. The going rate is about 50yuan/hour and 60yuan/hour at night (lights included). However, if you go for the membership which is 200per month, you get to play for free before 5pm Monday to Friday only.

You can also rent a tennis ball machine for 80yuan/hour.

You can also find outdoor futsal and basketball courts there.

Badminton
There are 3 badminton courts in the Gym, they go about 10kuai/hour. The lines could use some love but otherwise a decent court.

Gym
There are several gyms to be found,
There is one at Jiangwang stadium which goes for about 1000yuan for 6 months.
Terra Fitness at Da Xue Lu.
And the one close to the Foreign Student Dorms.

Tae Kwan Do (Somewhere nearby)
Taekwando is held at the South Campus on Tuesday 8.15 and Sunday 8.30 and is FREE except you need to have a uniform. You could get one from them for 100yuan or simply bring your own. Truth be told, I didn’t like the Taekwando class as it gets pretty boring since all you do is get into lines and do repetitive drills like kicks and all though I’d say it’s good exercise as I had muscle aches all over for the next few days.

Wall Climbing
There is a bouldering and wall climbing facility at Hongkou stadium which is a metro ride away. Take line no. 3 at Jiangwan Town and get off at the HongKou Stadium. Walk up the stairs past a store to your left that sells outdoor gear.

Bouldering is 15kuai/hour shoes included. My only gripe with bouldering is that the rocks could use some proper labeling because to a rock climbing idiot, all I see are rocks with some strips of colored tape. There is no difficulty rating or clear indication of which way you should be climbing.

However, guy in charge is pretty pro at climbing. He’ll will teach you tips to climbing better like how you can use your hips to reach for higher rocks and how you should lean against the wall to conserve energy.

So don't leave your stuff behind, if you are serious about it, bring your stuff along!