Taiwan 2001

		Sports and Recreation
		Professional Sports ROC Government Units in Charge of Sports Over the past few decades, sports in Taiwan have been largely found within the government-run educational system. Accordingly, the government budget for sports has also been inextricably linked with the budget for education, and government educational units at each level of government are responsible for overseeing sports and sports-related activities in their jurisdictions. However, in order to cope with increasing international sporting events and the need for training world-class athletes, the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports 體育委員會 under the Executive Yuan was set up and started operations in July 1997. The Ministry of Education 教育部 (MOE) has a Department of Physical Education 體育司, which is responsible for testing, implementing, and offering guidance on physical education-related policies in schools. It also has a Committee for Physical Education that is responsible for policymaking. The special municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung have Departments of Education 教育局. Bureaus of education under county and city governments have physical education and health care sections. Rural townships, townships, cities, and districts all have officials in charge of local sports activities. In addition to government units, the Republic of China also has private physical education organizations which accept governmental guidance and promote various kinds of sporting events; physical education funds set up by sports enthusiasts to promote physical education; large enterprises which sponsor company teams for competition; and service groups such as the China Youth Corps, Lions Clubs, Rotary Clubs, and the Kiwanis, which commonly hold sports-related events. Professional Golf President Lee Teng-hui and professional golfer Ernie Els opened the 1999 Jonnie Walker Classic at the Ta Shee Country Club in Taoyuan County on November 9, 1999. Foreign golf players included Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Frank Nobilo, Mark McNulty, Vijay Singh, Jim Fuyrk, and Sandy Lyle, as well as celebrities from both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Professional Baseball If the ROC could be said to have a national sport, it would certainly have to be baseball. Taiwan fans pack local stadiums each season to watch the six teams in the Chinese Professional Baseball League 中華職棒聯盟: the Brother Elephants 兄弟象, Weichuan Dragons 味全龍, President Lions 統一獅, Mercury Tigers 三商虎, Sinon Bulls 興農牛, and China Trust Whales 和信鯨. Each team plays more than 300 regular season games between March (February in 1998) and October. Fans islandwide can see the action, with games in Taipei, Hsinchu 新竹, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung. In the 1999 season, the Weichuan Dragons again outperformed the other five teams; however, at the end of the season, both the Mercury Tigers and the Weichuan Dragons announced the dissolution of their respective teams due to lack of financial support. Taiwan Major League Professional Baseball 臺灣大聯盟 made its debut in the 1997 pro-baseball season. The league has four teams: Gida 太陽隊, Agan 金剛隊, Luka勇士隊, and Fala 雷公隊, all with team names taken from aboriginal languages. Gida outplayed the other three teams that year to win the championship.In the 1999 season, the two leagues played 462 games, with more than one million spectators. Between January 1 and March 27, 2000, the alliance held a "2000 Commemoration Match" by holding 38 games. Professional Basketball Professional basketball made its debut on November 12, 1994, with the inception of the Chinese Basketball Alliance 中華職業籃球股份有限公司. The alliance suspended game activities in April 1999 in order to reorganize overall planning and operations, as well as matters concerning the six-year seasonal matches that began on November 18, 2000. Between January 1 and March 27, 2000, the league held 38 memorial matches. Cross-Strait Sports Exchanges The government has assisted and guided local associations and organizations to proceed with sports exchanges with the Chinese mainland. Exchanges have included sending people of colleges of physical education and sports to visit the Chinese mainland, attending cross-strait sports terminology seminars and seminars on sports and leisure culture. People in sports or athletics from the Chinese mainland are allowed to apply for entry upon arrival in Taiwan. Between January 1999 and June 2000, 734 mainland visitors were allowed to come to Taiwan as table tennis players, bridge players, and judo athletes. In June 2000, the Chinese mainland basketball team came to Taipei to play two games with the ROC team. Copyright (C) May 2001, Government Information Office.   All rights reserved.   Site design by L.F. Lee Best viewed with Netscape 4.x or IE 5.x (medium font) at 800 x 600 True Color (32 bit) resolution