ARCHERY CLUB IN XI’AN

Written by Jonas Goldbach

       Archery exists for thousands of years, it is known by people young and old all over the world through stories, history lessons and movies. During the history of China it always played a very important role, it evolved from a hunting weapon towards an important matter of warfare and became a sport and amusement activity later on. Confucius counted it as one of the six arts that every scholar had to master in ancient times.
Nowadays archery in China is becoming popular again; Chinese archers are winning more and more medals during the Olympic games and new Archery ranges in China spring up like mushrooms.
Until now Xi’an didn’t have an archery range opened to the public, which was a big problem for all the hobby archers out there – but in November this finally changed. For me personally this was a great news. I practice Chinese traditional archery myself and was really happy to know that we finally had a fixed place to go to. Until now I have been practicing archery with friends out at some open fields or in some of the bigger parks in Xi’an, which was a guaranty for sun burns in summer and frostbites in winter. Apart from the weather the areas outside also had some other problems, some park securities didn’t like us shooting around, every time some arrows broke and you came back home dirty from tip to toe.
Fortunately now we have a nice and clean place where you can shoot no matter what weather. The archery club is a great place for all archery enthusiasts to shoot some arrows and try out a new sport. They have a great variety of bows that you can try out, no matter if you are into traditional archery, modern recurve bows, long bows or compound bows at the club you can find club members shooting any kind of bow.  They also have children bows and bows with low draw-weights so that no matter how strong or weak you are you will definitely have the chance to shoot some arrows. 
At the club you can find all kinds of people, students as well as guys in the mid 40s come here to relax from their every day life and enjoy the sound of their arrows hitting the target. If your body is tired from all the bow-drawing there is a small area with sofas and a Xbox that invites you to relax, drink some tea or soft drinks and have some nice chats.  In the future they will have another relax area on the second floor where the lockers to store your bow and arrows are located. Most important they have a total of ten targets at the shooting range, five targets at a distance of 18 meters and another five at 20 meters, for beginners they also have some moveable targets to start practicing at a closer distance.
The archery range is located at Da Hua 1935 aka. Old mill new world in the East of the Da Ming Gong palace, there is a big free parking space area for everyone who prefers to drive car instead of taking the public transportation.
For non-members the price per hour is 60 RMB (including bow, arrows, protection equipment and some professional advice), they charge 1800 RMB for a half year membership (no time restrictions).
If you are interested in trying out something new or you practised archery before and would like to give it another try just pass by and have fun. The owners and most of the members at the club only speak Chinese so make sure to go together with one of your Chinese friends or contact me.
Place: Da Hua 1935 (Next to the parking lot, Store house number 4)
Hours: Daily 11:00am – 9:00 pm
Tel: 13572977706
15691976980
Get There: Bus stop Da Hua 1935/大华1935 (Bus: 2, 17, 22, 38, 46, 104, 209, 216, 217, 262, 309, 517, 703, 707, 801, 913) follow the main street of the old mill area until you reach the parking lot, the archery range is inside store house number 4 right across the parking lot. (They have a big target hanging outside, you can’t miss it)