For all you IronMan-aholics: Ironman China has been announced for 04/23/2006. See the announcement at:
“and government cooperation unparalleled anywhere in the world,””
Ahhhh…communist China…you damn well better have good government cooperation.
~Matt
It looks like a beautiful race.
It does look nice, as does IMWA - but I’ve been trying to find reasonable travei from the states and it’s rough! China might be better, but I doubt it.
I went to Taiwan the summer of '92 and paid $450 one way… ahhhh… the good old days…
Since I leave now in Guangzhou (1h00 plane from Hainan) I am going to Hainan tonight for the week end to check out the site.
Hainan is a tropical island (may be 500 - 700 KM long) south of China.
They held ITU Hainan triathlon few years ago and have some experience with organization. Hainan is trying to get worldwide attention as a vacation destination. They organized Miss World contest there twice already.
Sanya is the main city in the south and have many great hotels / resorts.
It is supposed to be very beautiful and the course is flat and since the race would be in April shouldn’t be to hot (75 oF 80 oF).
I’ll let you know next week about the location.
I cannot wait until race day. It nice (at least for me 
) to have an Ironman nearby. Last year we went to NZ which was 11h00 away!
I was hoping to get a break on registration fee but it is $450 like in North America.
Quite steep price if they target Asian triathlete.
Thanks for your post. As I’m also in the region and speak the language I am very interested in IM China. I visited Hainan 16 years ago, when all the infrastructure was just being planned and built, and I was a student in Beijing when they made it a province.
Have a good trip to Hainan and please post your findings on the area and terrain when you return.
By the way, are you from China originally?
Hey, cool, please post your thoughts on the course. That will be very interesting.
-Colin
Hey where in Guangzhou are you? We live in Tianhe! I have raced and trained on Hainan as well. Enjoy your trip, it’s a great place.
From the race website:
“Drafters will be forced to sit in a bamboo cage gaurded by the Chinese Military…”
.
Hi Mikeran, I live on Ersha Dao and I work in Tianhe.
I went yesterday to Hainan to check the course and I will post review later this week.
If you work around Tianhe, we may have lunch together to discuss Ironman.
I am a back of the pack 47 year old Triathlete.
PP
Same age, I might do a bit better time wise in the race though. So what did you think of Hainan? I love going there for racing or training.
Do you think it would be difficult for those that don’t speak the language? You mention the government are keen to make it a holiday destination, how geared up is the infrastructure for English speakers? I like to try for a smattering of the local laguage before going away, however I feel Mandarian/Catonese beyond my ability.
I hear that two hours later you’ll want to race again.
I’m sure the tourist-oriented infrastructure is fine for English speakers. The Chinese tourist industry has many excellent tour guides, and the race organizers are sure to anticipate language issues. I wouldn’t worry about it. But if you want to learn a phrase or two of Mandarin it would go a long way.
The local language on Hainan isn’t Cantonese, but one related more closely to that of southern Fujian, which is also spoken in many parts of Southeast Asia, including Taiwan, Penang (Malaysia), and Singapore. But as most people there come from outside Hainan, Mandarin is the main language.
All the resorts have english speaking employees, the entire race staff speaks English as well. Plus I am sure there will be many athletes that speak both English and Chinese. Hainan is Mandarin and their own local dialect. There were a lot of Athletes there Pro and Age group both that spoke no Chinese and none of them had any difficulty for the races help in 2002 and 2003 there.
All the signs/menus etc were in both English and Chinese.
Hope this helps
Instead of the usual pre pasta feast you’ll have rice!!!
I see. Sorry I thought 2006 was the inaugrial IM China.
In fact, you don’t need to speak Chinese but since 90 % of taxi driver do not read English, you need your Hotel staff to write in Chinese the address where you want to do. I am sure that the race will provide some transportation on race week as well.
The Hotel card always carry both English and Chinese address, then you need to have a map and some patience but do not worry.
I am still trying to find a way to post pictures I took two days ago in Hainan.
The location is great. The course is still tentative but so far, T1 and T2 are 30 KM apart which doesn’t make it spectators friendly but the course is not fully finalized.
The start is on a magnificent beach on Yalong Bay (resort area) and the finish is along the Sanya beach (city 30 KM away from start).
90 % of the marathon will be along the beach on Coconut avenue ( and yes it is full of coconut!).
PP
I was in Hainan this past week end and I drove through the course.
I had some questions to the races organizer and I already got their feed back.I send them a question before going to Hainan and then yesterday and each time they got back to me with great details within 24hours.
The start is on a white sand beach and I was told sea is calm most of the time. Since we are in August water was very hot but will be colder in April. It will be a two loops swim with a short run (less than 100M) between loops.
The start is within Yalong Bay resort area which is the best beach and the location of many 5 stars hotels
Then we will run through a wooden stairwell to T1 (less than 200 m)
From there we will leave Yalong Bay resort using a brand new 4 lanes road.
The road going north is a higway with perfect surface for about 35K , there is not any major climbs during all race and if no wind this will be fast.
The return south is on a two lane country road that is currently in a poor condition at some places with potholes.
The feed back I got on this from the race director showed that he was fully aware of the location of those potholes and he is fully confident that this will be patched before the race. He was the race director for the ITU Hainain discovery tri that was held few years ago and they used that road without issue.
From the bike you can see many rice field, farmers and buffalo (some crossing the road so beware!). The scenry is quite beautiful.
After second loop you go to Sanya and drop the bike on T2 on the Miss World convention building parking lot.
From there you have a short run to the Sanya shore (4 km?) after which the rest of the marathon will be along the beach on a 4 lanes coconut lined road. It will be a very scenic and probably crowded marathon. You will not feel lonely on that road!
The race director confirmed that there will be many transportation for spectators from T1 to the bottom part of the race loop, then from there to T2, from T 2 to finish line (about 4 to 5K and from finish line back to Yalong bay start area (30K).
Beside the fact that T1 and T2 are far away, I feel that this Ironman will be great and the marathon part will be fantastic since all of it is on the shore within a busy crowded beach area. You will not feel lonely during the marathon and since it will be two out and back loops on same road you will be able to see the fellow competitors.
I hope to see you there next year.
PP
Thanks for the preview. It sounds VERY tempting!