Students are the main buyers of sporting goods. The summer vacation during the Olympic Games gave them enough time to choose their favorite items in shopping centers.

Apart from Beijing, the fever for sport also prevails in other parts of China. According to the Bureau of Statistics of Jiaxing, a city in east China's Zhejiang Province, the sales of sports and other recreation goods in the city had increased 34.5 percent by August year on year.

Various gyms and fitness clubs have also witnessed the nationwide sports trend. For many fitness clubs, the number of registered members is much higher than in previous years. As for public gyms, a ping-pong table or badminton court needs booking several days ahead.

Li Fei, 34, a technology manager at a foreign telecommunications company in Beijing, is one of those young work addicts who recently joined the sports and exercise army in China.

He said that before the Olympic Games he bought a treadmill and after the Olympics he bought a yearlong family card from a fitness center in the community where he lives.

"The Olympic Games has awakened a passion for sports in me. In the past I neglected exercise because of my busy work schedule, but from now on I hope to make sport my life," said Li.

According to koubei.com, the largest life information search engine in China, with the convening of the Beijing Olympic Games, the search frequency of words and phrases related to sports activities, such as fitness centers, gyms or swimming pools, increased dramatically by 50 percent, especially after the Olympic Games.

Apart from practical involvement in sports activities, more and more Chinese people are eager to learn about the competitive events at the Olympics, especially those they were unfamiliar with before.

"The Beijing Olympic Games have mobilized every sports cell of the Chinese and people's lives have become more dynamic and healthier. Ding Ruping, a sociologist at the Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua News Agency, "Maybe this is one of the most precious legacies of the sports event to China."