Tycoon brings polo to China's new elite

BEIJING, Nov 29 (Reuters) Warmed by a roaring fire in a hall lined with Victorian paintings, Xia Yang reclines in his clubhouse near Beijing and dreams of returning polo to its glory days as a noble sport favoured by China's privileged.

Once praised by Tang dynasty (618-907) emperors, polo is now virtually unknown in China.

But the 40-year-old property developer is banking that China's legions of cashed-up leisure-seekers will embrace the elitist horseback ballgame with the same gusto that they have golf and skiing.

''The growing ranks of newly affluent, and changes in people's ideas towards more healthy and positive lifestyles, has provided a very big market for polo in China,'' Xia said.

Quick out of the blocks, horse-lover and player Xia built the Sunny Time Polo Club two hours' drive from Beijing, complete with stables, 27 horses and trained coaches from Inner Mongolia.

Except for the ping-pong table in the hall, the clubhouse has the feel of an English manor house, with swords hanging over the fireplace and heavy wooden furnishings. Red-coated men gallop around a yard outside and belt a practice ball back and forth.

Glimpses of surrounding fields where farmers eke out a basic living are a quick reminder the club is in China.

Xia, a bespectacled, soft-spoken former architect, has ploughed 1.53 million dollar into Sunny Time.

He became interested in polo after watching footage of Prince Charles playing a match with the Sultan of Brunei in 1996.

''It struck me as really courageous and visually powerful. I thought it would be great if I could play it myself,'' he said.

Xia is now such an enthusiast that he is determined to ''spread polo culture'' in China in the years to come.

Consisting of two teams of four mallet-wielding players on horseback jockeying to smack a ball through goals at either end of a 300-yard field, polo is not for the faint-hearted.

The club, which only opened last year has around 10 regular members. But Xia is alreading talking of upgrading its facilities to meet international specifications, staging tournaments, and bringing in foreign coaches to improve local players.

''China's pace of development is unimaginable, so I am standing on a treasure trove,'' he said.

China now has 250,000 millionaires -- the sixth-largest population in the world -- growing at 15 percent per year, according to a Boston Consulting Group report.

The Forbes rich list for China released in November put the combined wealth of China's richest 40 people at 38 billion dollar -- up 46 per cent from the previous year.

Xia hopes the sport will be a magnet in a business culture where spectacular rises and falls are the rule.

Ideal for vigorous types looking for a spirited pastime between boardroom killings, he explained in a salesman patter, the game is also a novel way to meet ''many successful figures and potentially beneficial connections.'' Some influential figures also ride at Sunny Time, Xia said, but had not registered as members bcause ''they did not want people to think they had leisure time''.

Such shrinking violets, however, are less and less common among China's affluent. With a spreading perception that business success is as much forged in the clubhouse as in the boardroom, private clubs have exploded in China's major cities.

But even in Xia's posh clubhouse, the lure of patriotic glory -- powerful in the country preparing to host the 2008 Olympics -- exerts its pull. Xia dreams of turning China into a polo powerhouse to rival Argentina and the United States.

''Golf, tennis and snooker have reached a very fast phase of development in China. Polo will be the same,'' he said.

In September, Sunny Time hosted China's first international polo meeting of sorts, inviting clubs from Australia and Singapore.

Several hundred people watched the Chinese side beat Singapore's team, before going down to the Australians.

''Although they didn't have a clue what was going on, they were enjoying the day out,'' Ian Brown, an Australian consultant hired by Sunny Time, said of the crowd.

Sunny Time can provide Arabian horses, equipment and an hour of polo training for as little as 64 dollar.

Brown, head of a polo club in Queensland and a former Australian national player, said he was impressed with the Chinese players' progress and the chances of the Asian country giving the sport a fresh, less snobbish face.

''Sure it costs a few bob, but polo could certainly have a bit more of a rock and roll image,'' he said.

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