The Amazing Beijing Adventure Race

The Mental Game
A mate and I had discussed it for a number of months, as an idea for a different kind of birthday party to celebrate him getting one year older and wiser.  There would be no candle and cake this year, but rather an Adventure Race (of sorts) around Beijing that would take in a number of well-known and not so well-known tourist sites, some of his personal favourite spots, and places that could be classified as truly bizarre. The race would be run in teams of two or more, and the mode of transport could include anything except for private car, taxi and pedicab. Having been missing a similar annual event in Canberra since we moved to Beijing (the always fun, but now defunct Mountain Bike Urban Polaris), and always one to celebrate a friend's passing of one more year, Amy and I (and Maddy, surprisingly) were all keen to be a part of this quality Chinese version.

A small group of competitors had been selected for the trial run, but on the day it was just three teams comprising a mix of Aussie Embassy staff and other Beijing ex-pats that took up the challenge and headed off from the start line out the front of April Gourmet on Xingfu Zhongjie. The rules were simple. Teams had 6 hours to visit as many of the 30 available checkpoints as they could.  There was no set order or minimum amount of checkpoints you needed to visit. Each checkpoint had a certain number of points allocated to it (from 10 points up to the highest one worth 80 points), depending on how far you had to travel to get there and/or what task awaited you when you arrived. Some checkpoints had extra bonus points, but would they be worth the effort?  The aim of the game: to have the most points at the end of the race, and be back in enough time to not loose more points than you gained (as teams lost points at an every increasing rate the later they were back after the 6hr mark).

For many checkpoints simply taking a photo to prove you'd been there was only half the fun.  From having to dine on the local delicacies at Wangfujing’s “Eat Street”, to having photos of a team member participating in three common pastimes at Temple of Heaven, to riding China's longest elevator in Xidan, there were a wide variety of checkpoints and tasks to select from.  This meant that some quickfire analytical skills were needed to identify which potential route offered to most points along the way - just as well I didn't brain my damage drinking too much wine the night before.  Having a self-confessed zero knowledge of the local bus system we knew that we would be at a huge disadvantage taking the public transport option, so we decided to shock the riding legs and take to our bikes for the race with Amy taking Maddy on her pillion passenger seat for extra exercise.  The other two teams decided that they would give the combination on-foot/subway/bus option a go, which would provide a very good comparison of bike vs public transport effectiveness.

The 'Ball Game"
Our preliminary assessment of the checkpoint locations had us deciding to do a clockwise loop around  the eastern Beijing area, covering Solana and Chaoyang Park as our Eastern-most border and Calligraphy Street (LiuLiChang) on the western front. Our first checkpoint of choice after the starting gun went off at noon was Yaxiu, where the challenge was to buy the race organiser (and birthday boy) a present for a maximum price of 25rmb. Bonus points would go to the team that managed to find the tackiest present. With time being of the essence it was the shortest time I’d ever spent in that god foresaken building, as I wandered in with a plan to track down one of the now famous Obamao t-shirts from the closest stand to the front door. Luckily the sales lady I met was not keen for a battle and waved the white flag faster than your average French soldier, and I was back out in less than 30 seconds with a 25rmb tee and Team Guihot back on our bikes heading east.

The next one and half hours flew past quickly, but so did the checkpoints as our planned attack route took us to the Mexican Embassy (to get the number on the gate) and then to Solana to track down the not so tough miner whose lost more building blocks than he's ever shaped with his sledge hammer (one of two Lego men I've seen around town).  After a photo of the Lego man it was then down to the picturesque southern gate of Chaoyang Park for a picture before heading right down south to the CBD for a happy snap of the not-so-happy CCTV buildings (one that was fried before its time, and the other which is empty because the previous occupants were the reason why the former fried before its time).

Amy with the Lego Man of Solana (3rd checkpoint)

Out the front of Chaoyang Park's south gate for a quick photo. (4th checkpoint)

After a short stop at Guomao for some refuelling we were off along one of Beijing's busiest thoroughfares Jianguomen Avenue to the Beijing Astronomical Observatory, which we had never been to and so took a bit of time to track down. It ended up being a small, unassuming section of the old city wall which offered a vast contrast to a lot of the new construction going on around it.  Whilst I stayed down the bottom to check on the bikes Maddy and Amy headed up to count the number of exhibits on the roof, only for me to find this answer on the sign right next to the ticket counter.  From the uncrowded roof of the city wall we jumped into the crazy and very busy front door of Beijing Railway Station to pick up another checkpoint, before heading into the familiar territory around Hongqiao.

After picking up a quick and easy 20 points at the Toy Market it was over to Tiantan Park (Temple of Heaven) for potentially the most time-consuming checkpoint of the day. We needed to get photos of one or more team members participating (with the locals) in three different local activities/pastimes. Luckily by this stage the park was in full swing, so after a quick stopover for some Chinese yodelling, a bit of Beijing Hackysack and some P.E. with the other visitors we were on our way to our western-most checkpoint for the day at LiuLiChang (Calligraphy Street).

The Beijing Railway Station - a mass of humanity and interesting luggage options, and our 6th checkpoint.

Tiantan Park, where I sang along with a music group who favoured piano accordians for our 8th checkpoint challenge.

I also played Jianzi (Chinese hackysack)

Madeline did her part for the checkpoint challenge, taking on the exercise equipment

We then started a mad dash back to the street behind Qianmen for a visit to the Beijing Police Museum which closed at 4.00pm. Our time management seemed to fall apart here though, as we finally tracked it down at 3.50pm (after some directions from the locals) but got refused entry by some very keen security guards. In a fortunate turn of events though, we were just about to head off for the next checkpoint on our list when we had our only encounter of the race with one of the other teams. One of their team members, a trusted hand in all things Mandarin, was able to do some serious negotiating with the museum shift supervisor and get us in for a personally escorted trip to the top floor to find out what the third item was that the Australian Police had donated to the museum (aside from a hat and plaque).

The next checkpoint was all Maddy’s, as we needed one of our team members to get a photo with a Chinese tourist. Given that Maddy seems to draw them like moths to a flame whenever we go to Tiannenmen it was very quick points before heading off to "afternoon tea" at Wangfujing’s snack street to secure some more points, in exchange for a pic of a team member eating one of the "local delicacies".

Maddy doing her job well in Tiannanmen Square.

I went the scorpions (seen above on the skewer) and the seahorse.  The former was certainly more palatable than the latter.

Amy just went for the seahorse - crunchy goodness!

Next port of call was Jingshan Park behind the Forbidden City, and a climb to the very top of the hill for a piccy of the Forbidden City on high. Having never been there we were all keen to head up to the peak for the points on this one. It was good in theory, until halfway up we realised that the 34kms we'd done already that day were leaving the legs feeling really tired. It was decided then that this checkpoint would be our last, and we would take the shorter route back to the start/finish and MAYBE just pick up just one more on the way - the little known ‘Repelling Demons Stone’. We’d been told that this was a bit tricky to find, so thought we would use up all of our remaining 40min tracking this down and getting back just in time. Luckily the clues proved to be very helpful, as we came across the carvings on our first attempted navigation of the hutongs west of Dongsi Beidajie.

Nearing the end of the race at Jingshan Park.

The Repelling Demons Stone - a tricky one to find for some.

With the demons duly repelled, 28min still on the race clock and the legs getting an adrenal-fueled second wind we decided to run the gauntlet and head off to the China-famous Beijing Tap Water Museum, just a stone’s throw away from the Australian Embassy. After coming to a decision point along the way in diminishing light and having to choose between left and right turns (the wrong one all but killing the opportunity to get the points) we thought we had selected the wrong option until we discovered that the name of this local icon had only recently been changed to the Beijing Water Supply Museum. After seeing off that red herring thrown at us by authorities we marked our presence with yet another happy snap and then took on the heavier traffic back to the finish line (at one stage courting death by riding against the 2nd Ring Road traffic). We rolled over the finish line at a race time of 5hrs, 59min and 16 seconds to find one of the teams only having just arrived back themselves, and the third team looking alot more relaxed having taken the last few hours at a more casual pace.

Beijing Water Supply Museum.  Fear not in your quest for adventure - ALL the local taxi drivers know it.

In the end we managed to visit 16 of the available 30 checkpoints and collect 425 points, putting us in 1st place only 10 points ahead of the next team, but before the bonus points had been awarded. It was a great day – one of the best we’ve had riding around the city. We’d visited places that we had not yet been, and ridden places that, while very close, we’d not yet ventured. The final scoring and regaling of stories was done around the table over wine, beer and pizza - the only way official matters should be dealt with.  In the end our decision not to include in the glasses market meant that we were not eligible for one of the bonus points on offer, and it was the race organiser/birthday boy and partner (and overall winners) that were the only team of the three that had included this on their route and who jumped ahead to take the overall line honours.  Well deserved, and just reward for such a great job of organising the event.  But in the spirit of everyone gets a prize we'd also taken something away (other than the great experience) - 43.1km for the race, and 52.5km overall was a good stint on the bike and reminded me why I enjoy cycling so much, even in a crazy city.  The all female 3rd team also really enjoyed themselves, and deserves extra special mention given that one of their members was running on limited sleep having got to bed at 3am that morning.

Our race route and elevation profile (noting the 500m map offset that occurs with China GPS co-ordinates).  Interesting to note that the two peaks in our elevation were due to climbing stairs, and walking up the peak at Jingshan Park.  Yep, Beijing is pretty flat.

A more accurate route map (over Beijing satellite image)

Plans may already be underway for a 2nd one in Autumn, and given the variety and sheer number of interesting places around Beijing it’s almost certain that the list of checkpoints will include 30 totally different locations and/or challenges for competitors.

More route details (and a better quality map) can be found at http://runkeeper.com/user/rguihot/activity/31127759