|

An aerial view of Zhuji Basketball Center, now the largest basketball venue in Zhejiang province. [Photo/Tide News]

The Zhuji Basketball Center — now the largest single-building basketball venue in Zhejiang province — opened to the public at the end of June.

The venue features 18,000 seats and ranks among the top 10 basketball arenas nationwide in terms of overall scale.

Zhuji, a county-level city under Shaoxing, is home to the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions, a team in the Chinese Basketball Association. It holds the Guinness record for the most standard basketball courts in any county-level city in China, with 2,251 courts. It also remains the only such city to have hosted an entire CBA season and an All-Star Weekend.

In recent years, basketball culture has flourished across Zhuji, with growing public enthusiasm for playing and watching the sport. The popularity of grassroots tournaments such as the "Village Basketball Association" has further fueled the city's basketball spirit.

After two years of development, the "Xi Shi" Village Basketball Association — named after the ancient beauty from Zhuji — has become a nationally recognized grassroots basketball brand.

Tickets for its opening games and finals sell out almost instantly each year. Many fans have expressed hopes that this year's final will be held in the new arena, allowing more spectators to enjoy the action in person.

The new center will host the Village Basketball Association final as one of its first trial events and will be professionally managed to support top-level sports competitions, training programs, and cultural activities.