This Day, That Year: more choices in spare time

Item from July 20, 1988, in China Daily: In a 90-square-meter prefabricated house in Beijing's Chaoyang district, a group of young people are playing billiards on a summer night. ...

Since it was set up a few months ago, the billiard room has attracted a lot of players. One hour's play costs eight yuan ($1.30).

Billiards used to be one of the three most popular recreational activities in the capital in the 1980s. The others were the disco, and qi-gong, a system of deep breathing.