OLYMPIC RESEARCH CORNER epidemic diseases to that of an unhealthy lifestyle. To deal with the problem a nationwide campaign entitled " National Fitness Programme" was launched in 1995. It was in the same year that " the Olympic Glory Programme" was initiated as well, intended to improve China's status in high performance sport in the international arena. These two ambitious programmes have been regarded as the backbone of China's sporting development since then and have been updated. It is worth noting that one of the measures to implement the " Olympic Glory Programme" was to promote mass sport and develop a more productive relationship between mass sport and high performance sport. It is not surprising to see that when Beijing started to prepare the Games a theme called " Mass sport participation goes hand- in- hand with the Olympic Games", was proposed by the National Sport Administration, intended to develop a mutual beneficial relation between the two. Consequently various mass sport activities have been carried out under the theme all over China. The Beijing Games have made positive impacts on mass sport in this most populous country in several different ways. Mass sport in China had long been regarded as a means for certain intrinsic goals such as improving the armed forces and enhancing production rates. Below Many sporting activities took place in the lead- up to the Games