Wulong Mountain Quest
A China-Pop Welcome
Rob Howard / 20.09.2009
The Wulong municipality decided to hold a huge concert in town to mark the opening of the 2009 race, inviting some of China's biggest stars and drawing a huge audience to an open space on the outskirts of town. Unfortunately, this created a massive traffic jam as upwards of 10,000 people tried to take their seats and the team buses were stuck in this of course! There was nothing the police escort could do as there was no way for the traffic to move aside.
Eventually the racers were inside ... well most of them. One bus broke down, then the organisers had no tickets for that bus and by the time they'd debated with the police on the gate they'd missed the teams being introduced and it was time to go home again! They were not too happy at wasting 4 hours on a fruitless trip.
Those who did make it on time lined up behind girls carrying a banner with their team name and took their seats at the front to polite applause and much flag waving from the vast crowd. It was certainly a grand spectacle, with the crowd disappearing into the distance, and the huge stage lit up by fireworks. It was on a par with something Robbie Williams might use, with multiple back projection-screens, smoke machines, bubbles and a dazzling lighting set up.
As the teams arrived a large dance troop was on stage and the teams got the chance to see a couple of the singers, but they were not taken onto the stage to be introduced - which I'm sure most of them expected! At 9pm it was time to get back on the bus for the hour long drive up the hill to the hotel, the teams somewhat bemused as to why they'd made the trip!
As the teams left I was waiting elsewhere to get a photograph of them on stage (having bluffed my way past the armed guards round the stage front) so I missed the bus back and got to see the whole concert before getting a ride back in the early hours. I never thought I'd spend a night watching Chinese boy-bands and divas while on an adventure race!
SleepMonsters
