INDOOR swimming pool!

Well back in Shantou now, today I went and tried out the INDOOR swimming pool that I found just before New Year.  There is an indoor swimming pool at the Meritus but it is small and hot and costs 80rmb, so not for the general population then.  This one is at the Shantou Sports Academy (汕头体育学校), - oh, I hear you gasp and say you didn’t know Shantou had one of those, well neither did I but I was researching sports courses for another project and, well, came across it.  It is bam smack right in the centre of Shantou, on Changping Lu, but you would never guess because all the courts and tracks and things are hedged in with buildings.  There’s just a gate, and that’s written in Chinese. 

This is a 25m pool, heated (a bit, it’s a good temperature), which costs 20rmb a time.  This makes it more expensive than the outdoor pools (10 rmb a time), but still quite reasonable considering it’s inside and they pretty much have the monopoly. 

You pay on your way out.  On your way in they hand you a lock, men’s lockers at one end, women’s at the other.  There is a small changing room with two cubicles and a lovely hot shower and also a toilet.  There is lots of mould high up on the walls in the changing room but it’s out of reach, which might be why it’s still there.  The walls are really high! 

Yeah and then you can swim - I advise people who can’t swim to wait until there’s courses coz when I went today there were no life guards around.  There were also only 6 people in the pool, all doing lengths, which was nice! 

You can also get a card, 30 times, to be used within 40 days.  I forgot to ask the price.  Address: 18 Changping Lu, Shantou 汕头，长平路18号，汕头体育学校  Telephone number of the instructor I met: 0754 8545855

Opening hours to public: 8am-2.15pm, 7.30-9.30pm.  That’s def Mon-Fri, maybe the weekend too.