X. Culture, Public Health and Sports

At the end of 2008, there were 2,575 art-performing groups, 3,171 culture centers, 2,825 public libraries, 1,798 museums, 257 radio broadcasting stations, 277 television stations, 2,069 radio broadcasting and television stations and 45 educational television stations throughout China. Subscribers to cable television programs numbered 163.42 million. Subscribers to digital cable television programs were 45.03 million. Radio broadcasting and television broadcasting coverage rates were 96.0 percent and 97.0 percent respectively. The country produced 406 feature movies and 73 science, educational, documentary, cartoon and special movies. A total of 44.5 billion copies of newspapers and 3.0 billion copies of magazines were issued, and 6.9 billion copies of books published. By the end of the year, there were 3,987 archives in China and 72.67 million documents were made accessible to the public.

By the end of 2008, there were 300 thousand health institutions in China, including 60 thousand general hospitals and health centers, 28 thousand community health service centers, 3,020 maternal and child health-care institutions, 1,344 specialized health institutions, 3,560 epidemic disease prevention centers (stations) and 2,591 health monitoring institutions. There were 4.92 million health workers in China, including 2.05 million practicing doctors and assistant practicing doctors and 1.62 million registered nurses. General hospitals and health centers in China possessed 3.69 million beds. The number of rural health care centers was 39 thousand, possessing 820 thousand beds and employing 874 thousand health care workers. In 2008, 3.541 million people were infected by A or B class infectious diseases, with 12,433 reported deaths. The incidence of infectious disease was 268.01 per 100 thousand, with the death rate standing at 0.94 per 100 thousand.

In 2008, Chinese athletes won 120 world championships on 24 sports events. Eleven athletes and 2 teams broke 16 world records on 16 occasions. On the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, China won 51 gold medals, 21 silver medals and 28 bronze medals, totaled 100 medals, topping the gold medal tally and winning the second in the overall medal table. On Beijing Para Olympic Games, China’s athletes won 89 gold medals, 70 silver medals and 52 bronze medals, topping again both the gold medal tally and overall medal standings. The amateur sports activities were carried out vigorously.