Tianhe Stadium (), officially Tianhe Sports Centre Stadium (), is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...

Tianhe District Tianhe District () is one of the eleven districts of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. In Chinese, the name Tianhe literally means "River of Heaven", which is also a Chinese name for the Milky Way. It is bordered by Yuexiu District ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

, China. It is currently used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

matches.

History

Construction of the stadium began on 4 July 1984 at the former site of Guangzhou Tianhe Airport. It was opened in August 1987 for the 1987

National Games of China The National Games of the People's Republic of China is the highest-level comprehensive multi-sport event of China. It is hosted by the General Administration of Sport of China. The games is held every four years, usually in the summer or a ...

. In 1991, it hosted the final match of the inaugural

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

between the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Local football team Guangzhou Evergrande moved into the stadium ahead of the 2011 season following promotion to the

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

. In February 2016, the club obtained the operating rights of the stadium from Guangzhou Sports Bureau for the next twenty years. The stadium hosted the football finals of the

2010 Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), were a regional multi-sport event held from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (although several events commenced ear ...

and the final match of the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

twice, in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

International events

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup matches

Transport

The stadium is best reached by taking

Guangzhou Metro The Guangzhou Metro ( zh, s=广州地铁, labels=no) is the rapid transit system of the city of Guangzhou in the Guangdong Province of China. It is operated by the state-owned Guangzhou Metro Corporation and was the fourth metro system to be b ...

Line 1 to Tianhe Sports Center Station (East Gate), Line 3 to Linhexi Station (North Gate) and Line 1 or 3 to Tiyu Xilu Station (West Gate and South Gate).

References

External links

Stadium picture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tianhe Stadium Football venues in Guangzhou Rugby union stadiums in China Venues of the 2010 Asian Games Tianhe District Multi-purpose stadiums in China Sports venues completed in 1987 1987 establishments in China 1984 in Guangzhou