On 1 June, the International Children’s Day, China’s national women’s table tennis team, led by the head coach CAI Zhenhua, arrived at Jinjiang, Fujian Province, which is their base. They would be staying their for a one-month enclosure training as warming-up for Athens 2004.

　　The training will be quite significant for China’s ambition in Athens, as all four Olympic players, together with other first-class national players, six coaches, six technicians, three doctors and a team chef, came to the base. The morale of the players is high, as they are quite confident of their strength over others in the coming Olympics.

　　The training will be focused on the four Olympic players; their shortcomings in skills and strategies will be specifically addressed. Moreover, the training will be rival-oriented: prospective rivals will be carefully studies and methods to deal with them will be tested. A major reform in this training is that a credit system will put into practice. The system will be the basis for the selection, assessment, award and penalty of players. Finally, as before, strict discipline will be enforced in terms of daily routine.