The eighth Spring Festival games were held at a stadium in Lingtou village of Ruzhou on Feb 22. The games included four sports events: basketball, table tennis, tug-of-war and Chinese chess. The Spring Festival games have been organized by Yang Jianzhou, director of Lingtou village, at his own expense for eight successive years.

Yang Jianzhou was elected director of Lingtou village in 2004. A Chinese opera performance and basketball match were added into Spring Festival activities that year because Yang wanted to increase amusement activities for villagers during Spring Festival. Table tennis and Chinese chess were added in 2006.

Yang spent 120,000 yuan ($19,230) to build a standard court for the basketball match. Yang also increased the award money for first prize from 3,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan. About 15 basketball teams compete in the event every year. The annual cost of the Spring Festival games totals 60,000 yuan ($9,620), including bonuses and the cost of the referee.

People from neighboring villages come to watch the games as well. Some villages will send teams to compete, and even the last place team will receive 500 yuan as a bonus. Yang Jianzhou said the games are advertised on Ruzhou television to encourage basketball teams to participate. The efforts have already attracted some basketball teams from other counties.

The Spring Festival games provide a display and entertainment platform for villagers. But these are far from enough to improve the quality of life there. Yang Jianzhou knows that some effective ways must be found to create wealth in the village to truly improve peoples’ lives.