Guo Liru received a pleasant surprise when she arrived at the badminton hall of the Inner Mongolia Fitness Service Center on Saturday morning to play with her friends.

"It's great that we can play here for free today," Guo said, adding that they usually have to pay 40 yuan (5.67 U.S. dollars) per hour at weekends for each playing field.

The center decided to make its all courts available free of charge from 8am to 5pm during the five-day Labor Day holiday.

"We provide free access to sports facilities including indoor venues for badminton, table tennis and gyms, as well as outdoor basketball courts and soccer cages from May 1 to 4," said fitness center employee Wang Danfeng.

"We would like to encourage more people to exercise and give them more things to do with their holiday," Wang added.

Sports venues and stadiums in some other Chinese cities also made most of their facilities free for use during the holiday.

Nantong Fitness Center in east China's Jiangsu Province offers free entrance to its badminton and table tennis courts from May 1 to 3, and is also providing 200 free vouchers for swimming and workout facilities to local residents.

Xiamen Workers' Stadium also joined the holiday free campaign.