BEL 06-42547010
Announcement !!
Following the enormous success of the Great Wall Ice-Skating Challenge 2015 and 2016, FIT Sports Adventure Travels organises again this unique ice-skating event in the New Year holiday season 2019/2020. A 13-day skating tour is offered to youngsters and adults on the ‘holy river’ running like a snake through the magnificent Chinese landscape bordering Mongolia. Here, countless remnants of the world longest defence-lines are to be seen: the Great Wall of China!
One can choose from 10, 20, 50, 70, 100 kilometer skating trips per day! (2 days marathons and 1 day extra skating). Thus, also options for those who don’t want to/ can’t skate 200 km per day!
Ice and temperature
By the end of November the ice will be thick enough (50 to 60 cm’s) to allow skating! During the day the temperature will be around -6 degrees Celsius, but the nights will be considerably colder! However, during daytime it always will yield bright sunshine!
Ice-skating track of 40 kilometers and a short cut of 20 kilometers.
We create a fantastic skating track on the yellow river Huanghe, in both directons with constant turns to the left and to the right. The (shorter) left turns track is open for skaters who don/ t want to skate the distance of 200 kilometers, whereas the (longer!) right turns track is available fort he true ‘die-hards’! Every skater crosses the starting and finishing line and collects various stamps, marked on a card. Like a snake the river runs through the mountain landscape and provides a magnificent view together with an awesome experience! Along the track there are various first aid tents and medical supplies to offer adequate health care. Local farmers – as enthousiastic fans – form cheering crowds for the necessary ‘moral support’, while local singing groups bring traditional music around the evening campfires!
For sports people who don’t want to skate long distances a separate ice-skating track is being provided.
During your first skating kilometers, the speed will be low with ample time to absorb the beautiful surroundings. While in constant surprise and admiration, your camera makes overtime to catch the scenery you’re ‘engulfed’ in!
After the Jangtsekiang river, the yellow Huanghe is the second longest river in China, measuring 5464 kilometers and an average width of 500 meters. Worldwide the Huanghe is ranked number six. It runs through nine Chinese provinces and finally ends in the Bohai Sea. The river has always been considered to be the “cradle of Chinese civilization”. However, following often flooding, changes in stream basins and elevation of the river bedding (up to a level higher than the surrounding fields!), the Hunghe received the questionable nicknames of “China’s sorrow” and ‘The Scourge by the Sons of Han”. On one hand Huanghe is seen as a blessing from heaven, on the other it is often beleived to be the personification of the devil!
Huanghe’s stream can be very turbulent yielding enormous transports of sediments, giving the river its characteristic name. It ‘re-locates’ 6 tons of mud every second en deposits yearly 1,4 billion tons of solid sediments in the Bohai Sea. Dams are being built in the river, but the lakes behind these dams suffer under a continuous growth of silt. However, the creation of such a dam in the north of China has provided FIT Adventure Travels the ultimate opportunity to organise a beautiful and challenging ice-skating event!
This trip will show you China that stays hidden and unknown for the average traveller. You will truely experience the atmosphere of the authentic rural Chinese society. Lodging is offered in bed&breakfast facilities with local farmers and/or in simple, but comfortable hotel accomodations. Along the yellow river Huanghe, life is ‘basic’: no showers, but an abundance of warm water!
Constant options are available to expand your trip via the Trans Mongolia Express, one of the most famous train trips in the world, taking you from Moscow, through Siberia and Mongolia up to Bejing.
Great Wall Skating Marathon
Ice-skating on the yellow river Huanghe in China
This trip takes place every year.
Date: January 6, 2021 till January 18, 2021
Price: between € 750,00 and € 850,00; students € 580,00 *
In these prices the international flight is NOT included!
Which ‘target groups’ might be interested?
FIT Sports Adventure Travels considers the ice-skating events to ideally suited for skating clubs in search of adventurous and challenging events. Interest in teamwork, flexible attitude and a positive ‘outlook at life’ are essential prerequisites for registration for and participation in this event.
Of course, individual ice-skating sportspeople are also more than welcome to register!
Groupsize:
The event will take place with a minimum number of 50 participants. In case the event has to be cancelled, you will be informed not later than December 1, 2019. When the minimum number of participants is registered, you will be informed respectively and accordingly.
* Students will be identified as ‘student’ through their student-identification pass!
** For further information: See Travel and Price Info
Contact
FIT Sports Adventure Travels
Stefan Rasing, managing director
T: 00 31 6 – 42547010
M: info@fitavontuurlijkesportreizen.nl
Making a reservation is no booking (yet)!
DAY TO DAY Program
DAY 1, January 6, arrival in China on January 7
Flight to Beijing; transfer to the hotel and welcoming dinner.
DAY 2 (D), January 7
You’re welcome to explore the city of Beijing or enjoy two optional programs, the price of which is not included here:
- Biking. This is the ideal way to get to know Beijing; from the ancient parts of it you bike to the ‘Forbidden City’ for a visit of 2 hours. In addition you drive to Tiananmen Square, where you will stay 30 minutes, followed with a lunch (included in the price) close to the Temple of Heavenly Peace, that the Emperor visited four times a year to pray for prosperity when harvest time arrived. After lunch you can visit this world-famous, magnificent building surrounded by a glorious park landscape. Here we witness local Chinese people having a good time while dansing and playing.
Around 17.00 hours you will arrive back in the hotel.
- Hiking. The ideal way of exploring the Great Chinese Wall! A bus trip of 3 ½ hours will take you outside Beijing, where in a mountainous area you walk the beautiful section of this magnificant wall between Simatai and Jinshanlin. During these 4 hours you will enjoy breath-taking scenery and landscapes’
Following today’s program, you will take the night train, leaving at 23.35 h and arriving in Datong at 06.05 h on January 8!
DAY 3 (B-L-D), January 8
After arriving in Datong a bus transfer, with an English speaking tour guide on board, will take you to the Yellow River. This bus trip takes 5 hours to Pianguan city, arriving at farmer’s houses at 13.00 h in the early afternoon. Following lunch and a change of clothes you will go down for a first set of test skatings. In the evening you will enjoy dinner in Pianguan city.
DAY 4 (B-L-D), January 9
Great Wall Skating Challenge, ice skating ceremony and star.
DAY 5 (B-L-D), January 10
Great Wall Skating Challenge.
DAY 6 (B-L-D), January 11
Relax day farmers; optional: Hiking on the Great Wall or enjoying another skating day.
DAY 7 (B-L-D), January 12
From the Yellow River a bus transfer will take you back to Datong city, leaving at 07.00 h in the morning (a 5 hour bus trip!). You will enjoy lunch in Datong city, followed by the hotel check-in, a warm shower, change of clothes a relaxing visit to the city walls. In the evening dinner will take place nearby the hotel.
DAY 8 (B-L-D), January 13
This day’s program includes a visit to the Yungang’s caves, Buddhist Temple Caves, excevated in the shape of honeycombs in the southside of the Wuzhoe Shang mountain. The entire complex includes 252 caves that contain more than 51.000 big and small statues, varying in size from 2 tot 3 centimeters up to 17 meters! The majority consists out of Buddha statues, some of which have monumental sizes, while other miniscule appear in innumerable rows and series. Beside Buddha statues you will encounter sculptures of fairies and musicians, expressing the happiness of The Enlighted and more earthly figures who played an important role in the life of Buddha Gautama.
In addition, there will also be an opportunity to do some sight seeing at the local free market.
DAY 9 (B-L-D), January 14
Following morning breakfast in the hotel, the 2-hour bus trip will take you to the Hanging Temple, built 1500 years ago out of a cliff 75 meters above the ground. Not only its position is remarkable, but also the fact that it is the only existing temple where three tradional Chinese religions are combined: buddhism, taoism and confucianism.
Before exploring the temple, lunch will be served and following the visit of the Hanging Temple you will be transported to Taiyuan City where a lovely dinner is awaiting you!
DAY 10 (B), January 15
After breakfast you leave for the old centre of Pingyao, a remarkable well-preserved tradional Han-city, surrounded by a completely intact (6 kilometer long) city wall from the ancient period of the Ming-dynasty. Old temples and houses within the city provide a unique impression of architecture and city planning systems in the Old Chinese Empire. During the Ming- and Qing-dynasty Pingyao was a properous trading city giving rise to the first banks in China and leaving the city the opportunity to develop itself into a dominant headquarters for the financial sector.
This city-trip is for private exploring and viewing.
DAY 11 (B), January 16
Following breakfast you will take the train (fast train, 250 km/h!) from Pingyao city to Beijing where you arrive in the afternoon for private exploring and viewing of this great city!
DAY 12 (B), January 17
You’re welcome to explore the city of Beijing or enjoy two optional programs, the price of which is not included here.
DAY 13 (B), January 18, on which date you also arrive back in the Netherlands
After breakfast a bus-trip takes you Beijing International Airport, where the plane takes you back to The Netherlands.
Prices (prices depent on the present inflation-rate)
Low budget price: € 1.125,=
Luxury package price: € 1.650,=
Prices include:
All meals during the DAY TO DAY Program
B = Breakfast
L = Lunch
D = Dinner
Dutch and English speaking guides and supervisors
All travel transfers
Included in the low budget price:
Lodgings in Beijing: Guest House, 4 to 6 people share a room in the old city of Hutongs
Lodgings near the Yellow River: max 5 people share a cave-dwelling
Night-train: the ‘basic’ package includes a hard sleeper bed. 6 people share a train compartment
Honorary Medal
Included in the luxury package price:
Arrangements while travelling through China, as indicated in the DAY TO DAY Program
Lodgings in Beijing: Hotel room in the old city of Hutongs
Lodgings near the Yellow River: max 5 people share a cave-dwelling
Night-train: the ‘basic’ package includes a hard sleeper bed. 4 people share a train compartment
Honorary Medal
Not-included in both packages
International flight to China: ± € 550,= (depends on the time of booking; early booking might yield a lower price!).
All meals that are not listed
Travel and health insurances
Cancellation insurance
Optional excursions and trips
Additonal visa expenses
Visa
Either you arrange your own visa or ask FIT Sports Adventure Travels to do this for you, by indicating so in your final reservation.
To apply for a visa you need a passport, valid for at least 6 months following departure to China.
Pre-travel participants meeting
Following reservation or booking for the trip FIT Sports Adventure Travels invites you to attend a pre-travel participants meeting. Here you will receive detailed information on background, program and various apects about this trip. Also you will have ample opportunity to ask questions and gather additional documentation.
Target group:
Recreative and well trained sports minded people
Our vision and mission
FIT Adventure Sports Travels offers you the opportunity to turn your endurance sport into an adventure. We organise sports travels in areas of natural beauty, almost untouched by (mass) tourism and in doing so, offer you the unknown and unexpected. You will experience basic outdoor living in foreign countries, combined with local standards of modern life circumstances. We closely work together with local people and create employment. Thus avoiding, that people leave the country side for a life in the city and doing so, preventing that old traditions and cultures get lost.
Reviews and evaluations of former participants in our sports travels include reactions such as:
‘Sheer amazement because of the natural surroundings and the constant variety in traveling experience, from traditional to modern’
‘Wonderful surprises regarding the acquaintance with the every day authentic life of the local people’
‘You start out as an indivual, but you will finally end up as a group’
‘I enjoyed very much the constant focus on individual performance levels’
‘No extreme sports is forced upon you, but you gradually learn to reach your own maximum level of performance’