The need for polo

Spectators show a little bling. Zhu Xingxin / China Daily

Not for just the rich

A taste of British luxury

Other promoters of the sport in the Middle Kingdom want to push past the notion that a 300-meter-long polo field is just another playground for the newly rich.

"I started riding horses and playing polo because I wanted to lose weight," says Xia Yang, the millionaire former architect and real estate developer who founded Sunny Times Polo Club a decade ago. "It seemed like a fun and interesting way to get fit, and it worked," he says, noting that he dropped 5 kg in two months. "There were many entrepreneurs like myself who 'didn't have time for exercise'," he says, "and so I wanted to introduce the sport to others who could be motivated that way."

Xia, whose club hosted the Beijing Polo International Open in mid-September, says that while riding courses can cost 250 to 400 yuan per hour, that doesn't limit equestrian sports to the super-rich.

"Tennis lessons cost money, too," he says, noting that many people will also spend several hundred yuan on a nice dinner.

Most of all, he says, playing polo is not the sort of conspicuous consumption designed simply to shout, "I've got money!" (Or, "Daddy's got money!")

"The sport takes a lot of time and effort," says the man whose peers call him the godfather of polo in China. It's not like buying a new Ferrari and driving it down the middle of a Beijing street for all to see, he says.

Polo enthusiasts are building a sporting-horse industry that creates jobs and infrastructure, he insists. He says polo will continue to grow despite the central government's crackdown on extravagance because of its potential as part of a growing sporting-horse industry.

Xia says that's why China's polo clubs－about half a dozen in number, with additional sites hosting less formal events－still enjoy the eager embrace of local governments. He notes that events such as beach polo in Dalian and snow polo in Tianjin have made the sport more spectator-friendly.