News Plus慢速英语:NBA办系列活动庆中国新年 WTA天津公开赛十月开战

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To celebrate the Spring Festival with its largest international fan base, the U.S. National Basketball Association has conducted a comprehensive Chinese New Year celebration which touched millions of fans in China, the US and Canada.
The celebration included unique live games broadcast in China. 10 NBA teams honored the holiday during games in their market.
The Year of the Horse was the third year of the campaign to mark the Spring Festival, the most important holiday for the Chinese people around the world.
About 100 million viewers in China watched the games each year in the past two years.
The 10 teams participating include Houston Rockets, Miami Heat, and San Antonio Spurs.
Celebrations varied in each market but all paid tribute to the Chinese culture in different ways. There were souvenirs giveaways, musical performances and local food and snacks.
The Houston Rockets, who drafted NBA Legend Yao Ming in 2002, and currently feature Asian-American Jeremy Lin on their roster, tipped off the celebration with an in-arena performance on Jan. 29. They host the San Antonio Spurs who have a record 10 international players.
David Shoemaker, CEO of NBA China, says the lunar New Year is now a global event. It is a great opportunity for them to celebrate with fans and their families in North America and China.

China has published its first blue book on public sports services.
Professor Dai Jian from Shanghai University of Sports is the lead author of the report. He says market forces should be combined with administrative measures to strengthen public sports services in Shanghai.
National fitness has been placed high on China's agenda. As early as in 1995, the State Council, China's Cabinet, initiated a Physical Fitness Program. It set the target that around 40 percent of China's population would participate in regular physical exercise by 2010.
The government has renewed its efforts to promote public sports services since 2008, when the country's competitive sports reached a peak during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Tianjin, one of China's most tennis-loving municipalities is to jump onto the world-class bandwagon with an inaugural Women's Tennis Association event in October.
Despite losing the bid to host 2014-2018 WTA Championships in May last year, Tianjin was reimbursed with its first-ever WTA tournament half a year later.
The Tianjin Open will kick off on October 6, right after the China Open. Thirty-two players from across the world will battle for 280 points and a 250,000-US dollar prize during the seven-day event.
The decision to relocate a WTA tournament from Europe to Tianjin came without much difficulty, as the northern Chinese port city had impressed the WTA investigators during the bidding for the Championships.