Summer sparks nighttime sports, fitness trend

Industry back on rails after lull resulting from pandemic-related business pressure

Wu Jie, a 30-year-old office worker in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, recently resumed fitness activity at a local gym to help manage stress levels.

Wu, a fitness enthusiast for more than five years, said: "After-work hours have become an important time for me to shed some of the work stress. So, I like to exercise at night."

Nighttime sports and fitness activities, including running, skateboarding, basketball and soccer, have become a new trend this summer across the country.

While young office workers are taking to fitness regimens, dancing at community squares has for long been a favorite activity of the elderly, especially women.

"In recent months, we have seen increased membership by customers who have been doing exercises at night after work," said Yang Ji, a fitness coach at a local gym in the business district of Tianhe, Guangzhou.

According to a report on China's fitness industry released by the Chinese Fitness and Bodybuilding Association in May, the national fitness market has resumed in full swing from the first quarter of 2023 following the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of December 2022, there were 71.45 million paid offline fitness memberships nationwide at about 131,000 fitness venues across the country, said the report.

It said that people born in the 1980s and 1990s were the largest consumer groups within the fitness industry, with first-tier cities being the main fitness consumption markets.

In addition to the growing demand for fitness at nighttime during summer, there has been rising demand for outdoor sports activities among the younger generation.

According to data from on-demand online service platform Meituan, the order volume of night sports increased by 155 percent in July compared with the same period last year, with billiards, badminton and basketball becoming the most popular sports activities.

The order volume for ballgames in particular increased by 250 percent year-on-year in July, according to Meituan's data.

People in Guangdong were the biggest fans of nighttime sports and fitness, with Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan and Zhongshan being the most active cities for such activities, the data showed.

Outdoor activities, such as riding at night, have also become popular among citizens and tourists, as temperatures during the day have been rising since the beginning of summer.

According to data from Meituan Bike, demand for bicycles has increased by 20 percent compared to the period before the summer vacation, with the service turning more popular between 7 pm and 2 am.

More than half of the nighttime cycle users in Guangzhou are those born in the 1990s.