The most popular spectator sport is football or soccer. This attracts huge audiences, and is also very popular as a participant sport - in fact the Chinese women's football team is one of the top national teams in the world.
As far as participant sports go though, football has not yet overtaken table tennis or ping pong, which is still played by more people than any other sport. Another very popular pastime is badminton, while the fastest growing sport both to take part in and watch is basketball.
Generally, the younger, wealthier generation enjoy a bigger variety of sports than their parents did, and a range of activities like tennis, volleyball and bowling are now typical. Gymnastics, though not always considered a sport, has long been one of China's biggest strengths and this is still the case. There is also more interest nowadays in sports like golf, though there is often still a feeling that these are the preserve of the rich - in fact games like golf were often banned in the past.