4000km Survival Challenge Race Set to Start in Central China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 05, 2002

4000km Survival Challenge Race Set to Start in Central China

China will hold another endurance challenge race like the Mild Seven Outdoor Quest staged in the last five years and its domestic equivalent events in recent years,according to the organizers.

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China will hold another endurance challenge race like the Mild Seven Outdoor Quest staged in the last five years and its domestic equivalent events in recent years,according to the organizers.

The 2002 Pilgrimage to the West Survival Challenge Race, set tobegin from the central Chinese city Xi'an on July 12, will cover some 4,000 kilometers through three Chinese provinces and an autonomous region.

The unique race has taken the name of well-known Chinese mythical novel Pilgrimage to the West, written more than 600 yearsago by Chinese writer Wu Cheng'en. The novel tells of Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) monk and traveler Xuanzang's arduous journey to the west to bring back Buddhist scriptures.

The Survival Challenge Race, which combines sports competition with tourism, cultural activities and charity programs, features such events as adventure skills, physical fitness tests, knowledgequiz, mountain biking, in-line roller skating, orientation and camping skills.

A field of four teams are to compete in the 30-day race, which starts from Sha'anxi Province a week later, goes westward to provinces of Gansu and Qinghai, before reaching its destination ofXinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the western most part of the country, on August 11.

"It's a very special event with man and nature bound together and every participant has to challenge himself to the utmost," said Wu Jun from the event's organizers the China International Sports Travel Co.

Among the teams are two university students' squads, one each from Beijing and Wuhan, and two teams with members associated witheach other through Internet communication.

Each participating team is composed of four male and two femaleathletes, who are requested to stay together throughout the lengthof the race, Wu said.

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