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Demolition of Kunming's Squash Courts

transcendwitme (24 posts) • 0

Many of you will be aware but some will not that there is a Municipal sports stadium (市体育馆) a stone's throw from the wen hua xiang area which has fairly decent squash courts for public use.

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There used to be ten courts as listed on two separate floors, however, the second floor of five was turned into office space, a simple method of moving in desks, computers etc into the middle of each court was applied and essentially ruined the walls and flooring.

Some time passed and it seemed as though this was not sufficient so the entire second floor was "sold" to an insurance company, the large banner on the front of the building with a racket and ball was replaced and is now an "official" office space where one can conduct meetings at will and move with glee amongst the ash and dust. There is a guard at the top of the stairs so if by some misfortune you happen to head up for a game of squash you may be politely reminded that there is not a place for sport, it is a place for making money.

So, remain the ground floor of courts, five of them. With a couple of light bulbs missing from the ceiling here and some patches of slippery floor there they are otherwise perfectly usable.

Until now. There has been word going around about the destruction of the courts for some time. I personally have been told they would be knocked down many times, thinking that as I coach there to sustain life in Kunming, it was just a form of verbalised hostility. However, many of my students have been calling me in alarm to pass on the message that they will indeed tear down the courts entirely.

I have put up some fight against this and contended the move on many grounds. But this is China and "mei ban fa" is far too often the only thing left to say, once the dust has settled and the trucks have moved on.

Finally, I can now confirm that the courts will for certain be demolished to make way for new high rise apartments. Clearly the great accumulation of five squash courts is getting to developers and as we look around the city, the obvious lack of new apartment space..well, they are going to do it anyway. Inhabitants of the surrounding buildings have already moved to new locations, it is only a matter of time before the diggers move in.

I know many of you do enjoy a game of squash, if you play every now and again I would strongly suggest heading down for a game. If you have never played before or are not aware of the courts existence then this might be a good time to check them out, they won't be standing much longer.

Selman

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