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Chinese bowling leader hopes for another boom Frank Ningbo Zhao — but with sport focus this time

JEFF RICHGELS | Posted: Tuesday, July 5, 2016 8:00 am
Chinese bowling leader hopes for another boom Frank Ningbo Zhao — but with sport focus this time
In December 2015, a delegation from the Chinese Bowling Association visited the U.S. for the first time, hosted by Brunswick Bowling Products and Frank Zhao of Longmarch Bowling, a Brunswick distributor in China. Here they are visiting the International Training and Research Center. Frank Zhao is at the far right of the standing row. Photo by Brunswick.
Bowling enjoyed a boom in China in the 1990s, with more than 30,000 lanes built before the market crashed around the turn of the century. Now there might not be 10 percent that many lanes in China, but a businessman and bowling leader who has seen the boom and bust hopes for a second boom with a focus on the sport this time, rather than recreation as it was in the 1990s. Frank Ningbo Zhao heads Longmarch Bowling, a Brunswick distributor in China that at times in the 1990s was overseeing the...