A Foot Race Across Xinjiang’s Desert

Home » Featured, Gobi March, Headline July 19, 2010 6 Comments

For those who are sweating out the summer even with the air conditioning on full-blast, imagine yourself running 250 kilometers across one of the hottest deserts in the world right now…voluntarily.

Sand dunes in the Gobi Desert

Earlier this month about 150 adventurous people set out on a dangerous trek across the Gobi desert. The race, dubbed the “Gobi March”, has been held in China’s Xinjiang province for 7 years now and hosts competitors from all over the world.

The race crosses the sand dunes and mountains of the Turpan Basin, a beautiful part of Xinjiang that is also known as the hottest place on earth. Each leg of the race passed through villages and portions of Xinjiang land that everyday tourists are not permitted to visit, a fact that makes this race all the more interesting.

To give you an idea just how difficult the Gobi March is, consider that out of 157 competitors this year, 33 never crossed the finish line and one of those unfortunately passed away.

Melanie Ho, part of the Gobi March media teamMelanie Ho was a part of the media team that covered this event and over the course of this week she will be sharing photos and stories from her incredible experience in Xinjiang.

Originally from Canada, Melanie has since moved to Hong Kong where she has worked as a writer for over three years. The Gobi March is the second of the desert races she has covered, the first being Namibia in 2009.

It’s likely you’ve never heard of this Xinjiang race before now, but I invite you this week to experience a new part of the province through the beautiful stories and photographs that Melanie has generously shared. Enjoy!

Read the Gobi March Series:

  1. Marching through the Gobi Desert: The Race Begins
  2. Marching through the Gobi Desert: Endurance
  3. Marching through the Gobi Desert: The Finish

6 Comments

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  • jessiev said:
    July 19th, 2010 at 8:37 am

    i so don’t do well in the heat. i can’t even IMAGINE why anyone would do this. yikes!

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  • Chinamatt said:
    July 19th, 2010 at 9:45 am

    My grad school teacher’s sister did this last year. I think she wrote about it somewhere online…I’ll have to see if I can find the site.

    It’d be a really cool experience if I didn’t have to run. Maybe we should start a hike across Xinjiang for the less athletic of us.

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    Josh says: July 19th, 2010 at 9:51 am

    From what I understand, only the hardcore participants actually run. Many of them walk and – like I said – a lot of them don’t even finish doing that.

    I agree with you, though, there should be a long, less strenuous version of this race for those who just want to enjoy the scenery. Maybe they can do it when it’s not quite as hot, too?

    Hope you can find that website with her story. I honestly didn’t know about this race until last month and I’ve been fascinated with it ever since.

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    Chinamatt says: July 19th, 2010 at 11:13 pm

    Want to plan a hiking expedition for next June?

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  • damo said:
    July 19th, 2010 at 11:50 am

    I believe they have an adventure race in the Taklamakan desert also where you are given map coordinates and off you go.Something like orienteering in the desert.

    They also have a bike race around salimu lake.

    Also a Auto rally called the Taklamakan rally just finished.

    [Reply]

  • Jimba said:
    July 19th, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    Heya Josh, another interesting blog post. I look forward to the informative inclusions.

    [Reply]

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