Jinjiang Sports Traning Base was built in 2002, a historic low point for Chinese shuttlers. China's head coach, Li Yongbo, was desperate to get the team back in top form and came upon Jinjiang by chance. He liked the base's existing facilities, and brought the team there for a trial training. It was the beginning of a new age for Chinese badminton.

That year's horrifying SARS epidemic entrenched the province and trapped the entire shuttle team in the base. The original training schedule was stretched from 40 days to 100 days. Some say it was those extra days that helped transform the team - China won titles in men's singles, women's singles and women's doubles at the 2003 World Championships.

The training compound is guarded round the clock in order to ensure undisrupted training for the team.

The Jingjiang facility has a secret weapon - a huge pool full of quartz sand. Shuttlers practice in the pool, battling against the drag of the sand under foot, helping improve their movement and flexibility.

Hongta

Despite the disappointment of China men's Olympics soccer team, its training base in Hongta, Yunnan province, is still considered China's most comprehensive and well-equipped soccer training complex.

Hongta Group, which owns the Chinese cigarette brand of the same name, built and financed the training base. It was originally home to the province's first soccer club, also named Hongta, in the 1990s, the first-ever in the history of the province in 1990s. When the club's popularity fell, Hongta Group decided to turn it into a top-notch training base.

The base covers an area of 334,300 sq m. Hongta Croup spent a total of 690 million yuan on the construction, which was completed in 2001.

The training base borders the picturesque Dianchi Lake, one of the most famous tourism resorts in Yunnan. The base has 11 full-size outdoor soccer pitches, 11 tennis courts, and four indoor training centers for winter sports, badminton, bowling and swimming.

China's men's team has used the base to prepare for almost every important international tournament since 2001.

Women's field hockey team. [Agencies]

Zhangzhou

With a price tag of 5 million yuan, the training base for China's women's volleyball team is the most expensive volleyball stadium built in China's history.

Each citizen in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, donated one yuan to build the stadium, a move aimed at raising the team's morale after its worst-ever Olympic result in Barcelona 1992.