Chinese people learned on Thursday just how much exercise they should be taking during the coming five years with the release of a set of guidelines for sporting activities known as the National Fitness Program 2011-2015.

According to the plan, 32 percent of the population should be taking at least 30 minutes of exercise at least three times a week by 2015. The target is 3.8 percent higher than the number of people who were exercising in 2007.

In order to give people the opportunity to work out, the number of gymnasiums and stadiums nationwide is set to rise to 1.2 million from today's 1 million.

The nation also plans to increase its inventory of stadium space from today's 1.03 square meters per person to 1.5 sq m during the coming five years.

"The plan and the goals are based on the current situation and scientific research," said Sheng Zhiguo, director of the sports for all department under the China's General Administration of Sport.

China unveiled its National Fitness Program Outline in 1995 in a bid to promote participation in sport among the public.

The initial plan spanned 15 years and has now expired, prompting the State Council to develop the new program.

Sheng said his department started to work on the new program in February 2009 and went through several rounds of discussions with relative departments before the document was officially approved by the State Council on Feb 15. The initiative took effect on Thursday.

The targets in the five-year program include a call for 50 percent of cities and counties to set up physical training centers and for 50 percent of communities to have convenient and functional sports facilities. The document also urges more promotion of competitive sports, including track and field sports, swimming and tennis. In addition, the number of professional physical trainers working in communities should reach one million.

"We tried to avoid coming up with any targets that are not completely reasonable," said Sheng. "It took the government two years to draft the document and, during such a long time, we have deleted some targets that we were not 100 percent sure were achievable."

In order to ensure the program is implemented effectively, all levels of government must include their planned investment on the promotion of the fitness program in their budgets. And an evaluation of how well the plan is working will also be carried out in 2014.

"We'll conduct a nationwide survey to examine the implementation of the new policy," Sheng said. "To ensure the accuracy of the result, the central government will send out staff to do the survey at the local level, instead of collecting data from local sports bureaus."

As a rising sports powerhouse, China has had a good deal of success in competitive sports and won more gold medals than any other country at the 2008 Olympic Games with a tally of 51.

At the same time, the government has paid a lot of attention to promoting sports among ordinary people. In addition to unveiling national fitness programs, Aug 8 has been named annual National Fitness Day.

The national regulations are the first to stipulate that citizens have a right to participate in national fitness activities.

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