Taipei Songshan Sports Center opens doors today



http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/arc...1/01/2003457394


By Mo Yan-chih
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Nov 01, 2009, Page 2


TAIPEI SPORTS OFFICE


Taipei Songshan Sports Center, the ninth district sports center in Taipei City, will open to the public today.

The center, located next to the Taipei Stadium on Dunhua N Road, will be inaugurated at 10am today. The center opened for a trial operation last month, and will offer discounts to visitors today.

Director of Taipei Sports Office Fang Cheng-kun (房振昆) said the two-floor building is the only district sports center with two swimming pools. One of the pools is 5m deep and equipped with a 10m high diving platform, making it the second diving pool in addition to the one at the National Sports Training Center in Kaohsiung.

Fang said the pool will be used for training for water sports ­including diving, canoeing and water skiing. Residents can also register for such classes.

The center also features a dance studio and a fitness center.

Establishing sports centers in each of the city’s 12 municipal districts was a major project initiated under former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to promote sports and public health.

The chief engineer of Taipei City’s New Construction Office, Lin Chih-feng (林志峰), said each of the 12 sports centers cost between NT$300 million (US$9 million) and NT$500 million to build. The remaining three sports centers in Da-an (大安), Datung (大同) and Wenshan (文山) districts will open to the public next year.

Fang said the popularity of the eight district sports centers has been increasing, as the monthly visits of all the centers combined increased from 600,000 last year to 720,000 this year.