The Chinese Government pays great attention to physical education and students' health. On August 6th, 1951,the Councial of Government Affairs issued "Decision on Improving Students' Health in Educational Institutions at all levels". It points out that improvement of students' health bears great significance to guaranteeing students, success in learning and to fostering a modern generation of youths with a robust body. The Education Law of the People's Republic of China defines the principal guideline for education as "Education should serve the construction of the socialist modernization, should link with productive labor work, and should cultivate builders and successors of the socialist undertakings in an all-rounded development in morality, intellect and body". In also makes clear that PE forms an integral part of students' education, that educational administration and institutions at all levels should regard PE as a priority of their work, and take it and students, health as an item for their performance assessment. The central education administration has also stipulated some relative rules and regulations. In 1990,the State Council issued the document of "Operational Rules on PE in Educational Institutions", which defines its basic task as "to promote development of students' physical and psychological health, and improve their physique to help students acquire basic PE knowledge and cultivate capabilities and habits in physical exercises to upgrade students' skills in sports and to train reserve sports talents for the country to carry out moral education and help students develop sense of discipline and spirits of courage, bravery and progress-making". Another document of "Operational Rules on Health Work in Educational Institutions" was issued at the same time by the State Council, which says "the major elements of health work in educational institutions are to monitor students' health to open healthcare course for students and help them cultivate better habits of sanitation to improve school sanitation environment and better sanitation conditions for teaching to strengthen prevention and treatment of contagious and common disease among students."

Priority is given to the built-up of rules and regulation and to scientific management of PE in China. Ministry of Education of the Central Government has set up within its organizational structure the Department of Physical, Health and Art Education. Education administration of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and those within the governments of above the county level have respectively a division, section or unit of physical and health education, or deploy certain officials. All these setups and officials shoulder the responsibility of physical and health education in educational institutions at national or regional levels. PE in China has entered into a stage of being guided by laws. In line with the relevant guidelines, laws and regulations, the education administrative departments of the country execute effective management and monitoring over the work. The laws and regulations already issued include others, such as "Operational Rules on PE in Educational Institutions", "Operational Rules on Health Education in Educational Institutions", "National Standards for PE Qualification of Students", "Standards for Provision of PE Playgrounds and Equipment in Educational Institutions", and PE Curricula Standards, Syllabus and Management of Students Athletes and Players.

In addition to possible provision of essentials in terms of funds and equipment, PE administration pays special attention to construction of teachers' contingent. Professional qualification certificate is introduced for PE teachers, that is, PE teachers in senior secondary schools, junior secondary schools and primary schools must have acquired, accordingly, education background of completing university four-year undergraduate programs, college three-year programs and two-year programs in secondary teacher's training schools. There are in total over 20 PE institutions of higher learning, PE discipline in over 60 other institutions of higher learning, PE programs in over 200 secondary teacher training schools. Besides, PE syllabus of secondary teacher training schools says that PE in these schools has a "two-fold task". In addition to PE of students themselves, the schools should also carry out professional training for students so that they could be PE teachers in primary schools after graduation. Up to now, there has formed a contingent of close to 300,000 PE teachers in the whole country, who love their profession and are demonstrating the spirit of devotion.

PE in China takes forms of class teaching, extra-curriculum activity, after-school training and sports competitions, hiking, traveling and others, of which class teaching is the basic.
PE course is the main form of PE in educational institutions of different types and at different levels. It is a compulsory course from primary school to the second year of undergraduate program in institutions of higher learning with 2 or 3 class hours per week ￡¨2 in institutions of higher learning￡?￡? Some schools even have PE class every day. Starting from the third year in institutions of higher learning, PE course is offered selectively. In schools with PE course as compulsory, students must attend the class. If a student fails to do so for one-third of the total class hours in one semester, her ill not be given final scores for this course, and not be regarded as reaching the National Standards for PE Qualification of Students. On graduation, he can only receive learning certificate, which will not qualify him for education of higher lveel￡?In recent years, PE course has been listed as one for test of entrance to senior secondary schools.
Since 1954, PE course syllabi were compiled and issued successively for educational institutions at different levels. In order to meet the needs of educational reform and development, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the syllabi have undergone revision and re-compilation for several times. The current syllabi are for use nationwide. Taking the philosophy of facing to all students as the guide, and individual development as the final objective, the syllabi set "three basic tasks"￡o first to pass on to students basic PE knowledge and skills￡? second to train students' body￡? and third to conduct ideology and moral education for students. They define the teaching contents of PE as including basic PE and health education knowledge and sports events such as track and field, gymnastics, games, ball games, artistic gymnastics and dances, training games to develop student body and traditional sports events of national minorities. The structure of the syllabi consists of both unified teaching contents and selective ones compiled based on local situation. Events such as swimming and skating are listed as selective because of their dependence on location and climate. In the PE syllabi for 9-year compulsory education, the proportion of unified and selective contents is 70￡￥ and 30￡￥, while in that of senior secondary schools, the proportion is half-and-half. The PE syllabi are the basis for teaching materials compilation, class teaching, teaching management and quality evaluation. Based on PE syllabi in educational institutions at all levels, Ministry of Education has organized compilation of national teaching materials, and education administrative departments at all local levels have also compiled teaching materials relevant to local conditions for regional use. After approval by the National Examination and Approval Committee for Teaching Materials, several sets of teaching materials are open for choice.

PE course in educational institutions is generally divided into theory and activity classes, with the latter as the main form. In light of teaching tasks and students' conditions, institutions of higher learning and secondary specialized schools open respectively general PE course, courses of particular events, promotion and healthcare ￡? primary and secondary schools open chiefly general PE course, while some senior secondary schools also open course of particular events on a trial basis. The course in higher grades of primary schools conducts teaching in unisex groups and groups based on health conditions, and pays special attention to activities in small groups in the teaching process, so as to cultivate students' interpersonal relationship, and promote their enthusiastic, initiative and creative learning.

PE course in educational institutions emphasizes on combination of PE with health education. It focuses on PE awareness and fostering of sports' habits in physical exercises. Through passing on of knowledge and PE skills, and physical exercises, it also pays attention to generating students' interest in sports, developing their personality and promoting their over-all development in terms of both body and psychology, so as to lay a basis for life-long physical training. PE courses also pay attention to students' cultivation of sanitation habits and health care awareness￡? Primary and secondary schools provide one class hour of health education every two weeks. Institutions of higher learning offer health education as selective course or lectures as requested. Efforts are made to prevention of school common diseases, such as short-sightedness, trachoma, decayed tooth, malnutrition, anemia, and a document of Program for Comprehensive Prevention and Treatment of Common Diseases among Students was issue as a result.

Educational institutions also actively carry out extra-curriculum activities of physical training, which form an important part of physical education and the extension and supplement to PE course. Laws and regulations concerning PE in educational insititutions stipulate that Chinese students should have no less than one hour of physical training including class hour of PE course everyday, and that they should do morning exercises and setting-up exercises during class breaks, and arrange certain period of time for extra-curriculum physical training. Since l950s, China began to try out "Standards for Physical Training" and later on issued "National Standards for Physical Training", a regulatory document approved by the State Council. It motivates all students to actively participate physical training and tests. It is also closely related to the PE course and extra-curriculum activities of physical training. An average of nearly 10 million students reaches the standards every year.

Extra-curriculum activities of physical training are varied and colorful. Many events such as bodybuilding, dance, recreational sports, medico-healthcare and traditional sports events of national minorities are increasingly popular among students. Especially in recent years, many educational institutions in different regions organize hiking and travel programs for students, who walk in the natural surroundings of the homeland, exercise their body and delight heir heart. These activities are widely appreciated.

PE in educational institutions implements the principle of combining popularization with improvement￡? For some students who are talented in sports events, schools provide after-class training to improve their skills￡? Training of reserve talents in sports for the country is also an integral part of PE in educational institutions. After-class training targets mainly sports teams and representing team of the school. It aims to develop students' strong points and increasingly improve their skills through regular training programs. With regard to a limited number of students talented with outstanding sports skills, the schools will send them, on a selective base, to spare-time sports schools for adolescence to receive systematic training. Up to now, there are thousands of such spare-time sports schools throughout the country, which give full play to their sports skills, and have turned out a great number of outstanding reserve talents with their improved skills.

In order to activate school life, promote students' enthusiasm in participating physical exercises, cultivate their awareness of competition and favorable inter personal relationship and find out sports talents, educational institutions organize a variety of sports competitions on regular base, with deversified form of limited-scale and single-event competitions, regularly or seasonally, between classes, grades or even schools. Educational institutions of different types and at different levels usually hold sports games both in spring and autumn. Comprehensive sports games for primary school students are held at county level and those for secondary school students at provincial level. The National School Games is held every three years and the National University Games every four years. In addition, some nationwide single-event competitions are also organized irregularly, and school or university sports teams are sent to participate in international or regional competitions. With increasingly improved skills and grown sports teams, student athletes and players have formed up a strong fresh force in the national competition sports.

PE research activities in educational institutions have entered a stage of planned and organized implementation. Research findings are continuously applied as the scientific basis for PE development, or as reference to policy making of administrative departments. The China National Institute of Educational Research under the Ministry of Education has set up Research Center of Physical and Health Education in Schools. The China Education Society, China Society of Higher Education and China Society of Sports Science have also set up successively research association of PE in educational institutions. Inline with the deve1opmental trends of PE in the world and in combination with PE theory and practice in China, outlines of research projects are formulated and listed into the national plan for educational research. At the same time, scientific research institutes on education and physical education at provincial level have also set up research teams or deployed special research staffs. Education administrative departments at county level and above all have PE teaching research staff. Institutions of higher learning have research section office on PE teaching, while secondary schools or big primary schools also have PE teaching research groups. Therefore, PE scientific and teaching research in educational institutions has formed up a network with vertica1 transition and horizontal linkage. This network has carried out in-depth research into all aspects of PE in educational institutions, such as its guiding principles, objectives, teaching, training, teaching, training, extra-curriculum physical exercises, students' physique and health.

Impressive achievements have been reached. For example, in 1985-86, Ministry of Education, State sports Commission, State Commission for Minority Affairs and Ministry of public Health jointly launched a research project on students' physique and health. Some 1,279 investigation points were established in 29 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities, with exception of only Taiwan province. These investigation points conducted large-scale examination on 20 indicators on physical shape, function, and physique of students aged between 7 to 22 years old of 28 ethnic groups out of the total of 56 in China. They also checked about 9 types of common disease. Nearly one million students were targeted. Based upon analytical research into the acquired 15 million original data, some hundreds of papers were turned out, and compiled into a book, namely "Research on the Physique and Health of Chinese Students", which has served as the most valuable scientific source for research in this field. This project, together with its findings, has been granted the Second National Award of Progress in Science and Technology. It has far-reaching significance on promotion of scientific research on PE in educational institutions of China, and on improvement of the physique and health of the nation as a whole.

PE in educational institutions of China is now undergoing prosperous development. Based on its own experiences and lessons, it will absorb continuously advanced experiences from other countries, and contribute, as it can, to the establishment and improvement of PE system in line with China's situation, and contribute to cultivation of socialist builders for the 21st century.