Behind the scenes a sporting project of an astounding scale is quietly taking off, and ultimately tens of millions of people will lace up running shoes as a result. With all the talk about issues such as budgets, air quality, human rights and building projects, the topic of sport often takes a back seat in the run up to the Olympic Games - particularly sport for the masses.
When the International Olympic Committee awards a city the games, one of the key objectives is to get the ordinary people in the host country playing more sport. And the rewards are obvious: doctors and sociologists agree it creates a healthier, happier population. But in China, that presents a monumental challenge. Chinese are not particularly sporty, as nations go, but ambitious plans are afoot to use the Olympics as a lever to get the average Zhou regularly building up a sweat on the playing fields.
According to a recent study, 90 per cent of Chinese schoolkids play some type of sport regularly - but they have no choice. It's obligatory and much as many of them may hate it, only a doctor's certificate can get them away from it. But as soon as they leave school they sit down in droves - less than 20 per cent of young adults play any kind of sport in China's cities and towns.
And in the rural areas, only about eight per cent of adults engage in any kind of sporting activity. When Chinese retire, many take up tai chi and other gentle martial arts, so the figure bounces back up to about 45 per cent, but across the board officials reckon less than 34 per cent of the country play any kind of sport. In western countries, the figure tends to lie from 60 to 70 per cent.
Part of the reason for this is economic, as the rural poor in particular invest their energies in eking out a living. And part of it is cultural - they'd rather spend their spare time playing mahjong, poker or video games than panting around a court, a pitch or a track.
But according to Xu Chuan, who runs China's Sport for All programme, much of the blame is due to a lack of awareness and a lack of facilities. That's what he's trying to fix.
