China catches the ultra-running bug, as businesses and government seek to cash in on trail racing’s global popularity
The country has 10,000 trail runners but more than 100 long-distance trail races, with governments in places such as Yunnan and Sichuan keen to attract tourists and foreign outdoor brands eager to tap a potentially huge market
Five years ago you could count the number of trail races in China on the fingers of one hand; now there are more than 100. Every mountainous area in China now sports an Ultra-Trail Something– Ultra-Trail Hangzhou, Ultra-Trail Shenzhen and Ultra-Trail Three Gorges, to name just a few.
Race organisers are perhaps unaware that “Ultra-Trail” is a trademark of the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB), considered the Olympics of trail running. Such is the popularity of the sport among Chinese runners that there will soon be an official UTMB – China, a sister event of the UTMB, to be held in a location yet to be confirmed in western China.
![Runners on the Great Hakka Marathon. Photo : Great Hakka Marathon [FEATURES]](https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/images/methode/2017/01/06/a414c3ae-d3cd-11e6-86a3-82dfe61732b8_486x.JPG?itok=OcEXt99Q "Runners on the Great Hakka Marathon. Photo : Great Hakka Marathon [FEATURES]")
“We are a little worried that UTMB will become a fully Chinese event,” jokes Michel Poletti, the UTMB founder, during a work visit to China in December 2016. Yet, the UTMB organisers went as far as staging an official reception in Chamonix, with a briefing in Putonghua, for the Chinese participants of the 2016 edition of the UTMB.
World trail running champion Caroline Chaverot, in Hong Kong for first time, talks about what drives her
Foreign participants, having attended one of the Chinese races, are often left puzzled. Lavish prize money, extravagant opening and closing ceremonies, an army of staff and doctors, but only a few dozen people on the start line – this simply makes no sense. You must know the economic and political mechanisms behind many Chinese races to understand why such events are possible.