湖南省体育场

Hunan Provincial Stadium stands at 1 Tiyuguan Road, Kaifu District, at the junction of Furong and Dongfeng roads and Zhanlanguan and Tiyuguan roads, next to the west gate of Martyr's Park. The ground began as Xiecaoping, a Qing-era military drill field; after the war with Japan it was used as an airfield by the Nationalist air force, and in November 1949 the provincial government ordered it expanded into a provincial stadium. It was renamed the People's Stadium in 1951, was known for a period in the 1960s as Dongfeng Square, and is the earliest multi-purpose stadium in Hunan; the first Hunan Provincial Games opened here in 1959. Covering 87 mu, it was rebuilt and extended in March 2002 and again in December 2015. Today it has a standard grandstand seating more than 7,000, a full-size football pitch, a seven-storey public fitness centre, a two-storey training hall and an underground car park for 300 vehicles, with more than 30,000 sqm of floor area, over 15,000 sqm of it indoors. Badminton, tennis, indoor basketball and table tennis halls and a gym are available, and the athletics track holds a Class II certification from the Chinese Athletics Association. Owned by the provincial sports bureau, the stadium carries provincial team training, women's football fixtures from the City Games and everyday public exercise, making it one of the busiest public grounds in central Changsha, with the old Kaifu neighbourhood and Martyr's Park around it and frequent buses on Dongfeng and Tiyuguan roads. The provincial sports bureau notes that the national sports administration has recognised it as an advanced unit for opening venues to the public.