Students on their compulsory morning run at the East China University of Political Science and Law Photo: Liao Fangzhou/GT

The morning run has been a compulsory physical exercise in Shanghai's universities for at least three decades but it is not greeted with wholehearted enthusiasm by many students. Most are reluctant and some even actively evade it in various ways. Recently police reported that two freshmen from the Shanghai Lixin University of Commerce were found to have been responsible for hacking into the university's computer system and faking data that showed that they had completed their compulsory runs.

After the two, who hated the idea of the morning jog, had successfully faked their own data, others who also disliked the exercise regime, joined in and it became a hacking service. More than 200 students paid 15 yuan ($2.40) or 20 yuan for each run they avoided but wanted recorded as having been completed and the two freshmen made 80,000 yuan, before the university realized there was an anomaly and asked the police to investigate in March.

The university said that it has now fixed the loophole in the system to prevent further hacks. "Personally I have never liked morning running or running at any time, but it is just like a part of the university's curriculum and cheating is absolutely inexcusable," a senior from the university's statistics department, who wanted to be called Gina, told the Global Times.

At her university, male students have to complete 20 morning runs each semester and female students have to complete 18. If they don't do this the highest marks they will be given for the compulsory PE course will be 59 percent, an overall fail.

In other universities failing to complete the set number of runs does not necessarily mean students will fail but few choose to try this. "A lower score necessarily affects the total GPA (grade point average) and therefore the students' chances of obtaining scholarships and the like, so more than 90 percent of the students do their runs," said Jin Qirong, the deputy head of the sports department at the East China University of Political Science and Law.

Early starts

Not only are these runs compulsory but they are early morning events, usually between 6:35 and 7:10 am. Other city universities like Fudan University, Tongji University, Shanghai Normal University, and the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, set the running period from 6:45 to 7:15 am. At the Shanghai International Studies University, students run between 7:30 and 8 am.

The early start is one of the big reasons students dislike this compulsory exercise program. Lu Xiao is a senior at the Shanghai International Studies University and he said it was very difficult for him and those around him, who tended to go to bed late at night for various reasons.

"We could make up for some sleep before the first session of classes if we didn't have to run. The running regime means I get to feel quite sleepy during classes on the days that I run," Lu protested.

But Chen Xi, a freshman from Fudan University, said the university's PE lecturer had told her that the morning run was intended to ensure that students actually got up early enough to attend their first classes. "The university doesn't really expect that the students will become regular runners, but just hopes they get up earlier. Since morning runs were introduced, fewer students have been late for their first classes," Chen told the Xinmin Evening News.

Other universities said that because students did not exercise of their own volition at all, the morning runs were introduced to push them into exercise and improve their overall health. "The decline in university students' fitness is almost a social problem," a lecturer surnamed Jiang from Tongji University's sports department told the Shanghai Evening Post last year.

But some students think the compulsory runs are not actually going to help overall fitness or attendance. "After all, I just need to get up early and run less than 20 times a semester. This is certainly not enough to make someone an early bird or get them into the habit of regular exercise," a graduate surnamed Huang from the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics pointed out.

Great disparity

There is a great disparity in the number of morning runs that different universities set. The number ranges from just seven times a semester at the Shanghai Normal University to 30 runs at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and Tongji University. Most universities tell students to run between 12 and 20 times each semester.

Deputy head Jin told the Global Times that he felt that if there were only a few morning runs, this would have little affect on fitness. "Improving a student's fitness levels can't just depend on morning runs especially when there aren't many runs and a run only lasts for a few minutes," Jin said.

At the East China University of Political Science and Law, students need to finish their 820-meter run within six minutes. Around the city universities, most students have to run for under 10 minutes on each occasion. At the Shanghai Lixin University of Commerce, for example, male students have to finish a 1,500-meter run in seven minutes (female students have to do this in eight minutes). The Shanghai International Studies University requires students to run about 1,000 meters in under nine minutes.

The runs might not be long but some students still find it difficult to cover the distance within the time limits and some of the routes are not confined to sports stadiums or grounds but meander across campuses.

The way the runs work and are recorded is that student monitors with electronic machines stand at the start and finish lines of the run and the runners swipe special "running" cards on the machines, recording the date and time it took to complete the run. Anyone who is over the limit, even by one second, doesn't have that run recorded and has to do it again.

Substitute runners

Lu from the Shanghai International Studies University said she had failed a couple of times but this was not uncommon among female students. She believed this was another reason why some students cheated. Apart from paying a hacker, some students have hired stand-in runners. "A classmate of mine had failed quite a few times and in the end she hired someone for 40 yuan. This person had advertised on an instant messenger group called 'Morning Jogging Substitutes at Songjiang University Town,'" Lu said.

She told the Global Times that, to pass the monitor who swipes the "running" cards, the substitutes (who were also students) would just attach their own ID photographs on top of the originals. "Some were caught, but most got away with it. That's why cheating still goes on," Lu said.

Not everyone has to pay for a substitute runner - some do it for love apparently. "Sometimes if a guy is wooing a girl he will offer to run for her to prove his love," Huang said.

Those who do run for themselves can find other ways to make it easier - some take shortcuts or ride a bicycle or hop on the back of someone else's bike which can be done out of sight of the monitors. Some universities like the Shanghai International Studies University and the East China University of Political Science and Law set extra monitors along the routes.

"Anyone caught cheating a second time will have 20 points taken off the final marks for the compulsory PE course," Jin said. In some universities, like Tongji, this would mean failing the course.

In recent years some universities - the East China University of Political Science and Law, Tongji University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University - have introduced afternoon or evening runs alongside the morning jogs.

"The students' union suggested to the authorities that students were unwilling to join in the morning runs, so that from 2010 or 2011 they began to run in the afternoon instead," Jin said.  At his university, students can run between 4:15 and 5 pm and this has proved popular - Jin said that 70 percent of the students now run in the afternoon. At Shanghai Jiao Tong University the alternative runs are between 4:30 and 5:30 pm.

At Tongji University, late afternoon runs are set from 6 to 7 pm and are also popular. Tongji University student Liu Xin explained: "The fact that there is often a long queue for the starting line - which is not the case during the morning when I usually run - shows that most students prefer this time slot. I think this is because most people buy the idea that after-dinner exercise is a good way to stay fit.

"As well, for sensitive image-conscious girls, running after sunset might be less uncomfortable."

Other options

Some Shanghai students have not just an alternative time slot to run, but can select another form of exercise to complete their PE courses. At the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, for example, students can play badminton or swim instead of running.

Sun Wen, the former captain of the Chinese women's national football team, told the Xinmin Evening News that allowing students to choose other forms of exercise was a sensible approach. "Running is an aerobic exercise which is good for the heart and lungs, but ball games and aerobic dancing can achieve that too. It would be better if it were not restricted to just running."

Over the years there have been deaths associated with the morning runs as well as scores of minor injuries like sprains. Deputy head Jin Qirong said a female student had died while running last year but it was discovered later that she was suffering from a heart complaint. Since then the university has made it clear that anyone with a physical problem can apply to join a less strenuous exercise model.

"We have also employed more students at points along the route as well as having lecturers patrol to make sure there is a quick response and help is close at hand if something goes wrong," Jin said.

Some students make it obvious they would prefer to be doing something other than running. The Tongji University student Liu, who described herself as a running enthusiast, said she noticed some of her fellow students were slipshod in their approach to the morning exercise. "It's quite common for them to turn up in tight jeans or skirts. Even worse some of them are wearing sandals, flats or even boots instead of running shoes. And few of them bother to warm up beforehand."