Tennis academy in a cradle of ancient Chinese civilization...

𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 临沂市 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘺𝘪 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺...

𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

Last weekend, we kicked off first trainings at a new branch of our Easton Bridge tennis academy in 临沂市 Linyi city, an ancient cradle of Chinese civilization in the south of #Shandong province.

Easton Bridge is an education center located in Tongzhou district, #Beijing with among others a tennis academy in the district’s Grand Canal Park. It is great to witness the fast growing interest of tennis in China in recent years and our professional coach team has rapidly expanded to 12 coaches this year. Our new Linyi branch includes three coaches with two outdoor and two indoor courts which we hope to expand soon this year (along with the development of branches in other Chinese lower tier cities).

Linyi City is a prefecture-level tier 3 city with a total prefecture population of about 11 million people and an urban city population of 3.5 million. Tracing back to 2500 years ago, Linyi City was first built during the Spring and Autumn Period, named Qiyang at that time and has been home to notably historical figures. Among others to Zhuge Liang, 諸葛亮, also known as Kongming (181-234), a renowned statesman and military strategist, known in China for his wisdom and strategy. And Wang Xizhi, 王羲之 (303-361), a Chinese calligrapher, politician, general and writer during the Jin dynasty. Known for his mastery of Chinese calligraphy, he is one of the Four Talented Calligraphers (四賢) in Chinese calligraphy.

In 1972, the Sun Tzu's Art of War was discovered in two Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) tombs in Linyi, along with other classics on hand written bamboo slips. Sun Tzu's Art of War is currently at display at Shandong Provincial museum.

Close to the shores of the Yellow Sea, Linyi is the second largest wholesale trade center in China (after Yiwu, Zhejiang) with dozens of professional wholesale markets for among others small commodities, hardware and building materials. The prefecture is also known for agriculture such as cultivation of peanuts, ginkgo, honeysuckle and Chinese chestnut, and home to the famous cultural and sacred Mengshan mountain (visited by among others Li Bai, Du Fu and Confucius in ancient history).

Linyi is about 650km south of Beijing with the high speed train taking you there in about 3 hours. The city is about 600km north of Shanghai.

#china #chinesesociety #chineseculture #chinesehistory #tennis #eastonbridge #beijing #tongzhou