It was the second time the people in Zhangzhou showed their steadfast support for the volleyball team - in 1972, Zhangzhou authorities mobilized local volunteers to build a "bamboo-framed stadium" for the national women's team.

The foreign press once described the base as the "secret foundation" of the Chinese volleyball team. As time went on, the real secret of the team's success was unveiled: the love, affection and heart-felt support of the the Zhangzhou people.

Lang Ping, the world-acclaimed Chinese spiker and head coach of the US team, once wrote: "We (the Chinese team as a whole) will forever remember the Zhangzhou people's dedicated emotion, understanding and support!"

Apart from Zhangzhou, Beilun, in Zhejiang province, will become another home of China's women's volleyball team once the 127,000 sq m facility finishes construction.

Zhengding

The Zhengding National Table Tennis Training Base was built on the generous contributions of Wang Guangqing, the man who created the prototype of a sports training base 16 years ago.

The 70-year-old physical education teacher has seen his brainchild pump out top-level table tennis players ever since.

In August 1970, Wang was transferred to Zhengding county to work as a primary school physical education teacher. Driven by his fervent passion for table tennis, Wang organized a school-wide training team. He spent all his earnings on table tennis books, and led his players in an after-school work program, trying to raise money for training.

Wang's perseverance paid off eight years later. His 12-member table tennis school received long-awaited support from the city's sports authority and it became "China's key table tennis sports school". The success inspired Wang to turn the school into a nation-wide table tennis training base.

Phase by phase, the school evolved into a modern comprehensive table tennis training compound, providing cutting-edge equipment, facilities and training methods.

The training base is located 260km from Beijing in Hebei province. The proximity to the capital enabled the base to train the Chinese women's team before the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The team went on to clinch both women's gold medals.

Since then, the 21,000 sq m training base has been designated as the official training venue for the national teams. Cai Zhenhua, former head coach of the national table tennis team, described Zhengding as "the best training base on the planet".

Jiangmen

When Li Ting and Sun Tiantian won China's first-ever Olympic tennis gold, it was a turning point in Chinese sports history. The China Tennis Association subsequently designated Jiangmen, a coastal city to the west of the Pearl River Delta, the home of the national tennis training base.

It was not entirely a surprise - Jiangmen city had long boasted a tradition of tennis. The city was home to more than 80 tennis courts and tennis was the most widely played local sport.

Huayuan Hotel, where the training center is located, sits on a beautiful island. There are eight standard tennis courts used for training. Another 12 courts and a central tennis center are scheduled to be built with an investment of 15 million yuan.

Jiangmen has become a magnet for tennis fans all over China. Tennis is also the core industry of the region.

Tennis chief Sun Jinfang said the reason the administration designated Jiangmen the permanent training base for the national teams is because "there is no parallel contender to Jiangmen, which has all the desirable conditions of weather, location, equipment and local support."