APTRC

2024/10/26-27

Established in 2024 and first held in the R.O.K., the APTRC is the trail running festival with the most competitiveness in the Asia-Pacific region. It offers a predominant stage to top elites all over the area.

The event was initially conceived by Janet NG, the co-founder of the Hong Kong 100 Ultramarathon and the current leader of the ITRA, who has tried to balance the trail running scene by offsetting the great influence of the UTMB World Series worldwide.

Region leagues like the APTRC are among Janet’s attempts, as well as the World Trail Majors. After the success in R.O.K. in late 2024, she started to work for the Biennale in 2026 immediately.

The Grand Wuyi

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In 2025, it turns to Wuyishan (武夷山), a prefecture belonging to Fujian, which is a hilly and coastal province in southeast China. The Grand Wuyi Trail Race (大武夷超級山徑賽) around the Wuyi Mountain or Wuyishan (武夷山) will be the arena of the 2026 APTRC.

The Wuyishan is one of the only 35 World Heritage - Mixed Property sites around the earth. The mountain sits on the border of Fujian and Jiangxi, with 110 peaks above 1000m in altitude. Cliffs and crystal creeks are everywhere. The sub-tropical humid climate has kept its local ecological system intact for tens of thousands of years, with rare birds and precious beasts, plus exotic flowers and strange grasses. Today, with four conservative zones around, Wuyishan has become a tourism site famous for both historical stories and natural scenery.

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Wuyishan has been famous for its tea for hundreds of years, such as the very expensive “big red gown” (大紅袍) and “golden mustang eyebrow” (金駿眉), with staggering price tags. Buddhism has set its roots here around 1400 years ago and developed rapidly, combined with Chinese culture. Meanwhile, Neo-Confucianism had risen from here since the 9th century. There are many ancient buildings and sites attracting tourists.

The 2025 Grand Wuyi Trail Race

Since 2015, the Grand Wuyi Trail Race has become the most well-known trail running race in Fujian province after its birth. The field has increased more than 30 times in 2025 compared to the first edition (11000 vs 300+) as trail running becomes a popular way of recreation among the prosperous outdoor and sports community in China.

The 2025 Grand Wuyi Trail Race was held successfully during the second weekend of November, with 5 categories: 10km kid run, 20km, 35km, 60km, and 100km.

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The courses of the 35/60/100km traverse into some deep areas of the vast and mighty Wuyishan, to fully demonstrate the local feature of the “green water and red mountain” (碧水丹山). Unpaved single tracks and mild trails are over 50% of the total length (60/100km), while the stone stairs are 10%, narrow paths in tea orchid 10%, with some paved cement roads as conjunctions between different parts.

Running along these routes, you can enjoy the view of huge mountains on both sides, peaceful rivers wandering through the dense forest, and some ancient houses and temples. The aroma of various tea leaves invaded your respiratory tract frequently. Around 75% of the route is highly runnable if there is “a light breeze and beautiful sunshine”.

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However, we cannot make the “old celestial lord” generate ideal weather for human activities like farming a trail running. Light rain and haze are very common around Wuyishan all year round. Intermittent rain started from dawn on 8th Nov and lasted for some 20 hours. The view was much like a dynamic long roll of a Chinese ink wash painting.

The rain brought down the risk of heatstroke under the scorching sun but complicated what’s underfoot. The loose yellow soil on the single track turned into sticky and slippery mud, making going both up and down more difficult. The wet moss on the stone stairs diminished the fraction of the most “advanced” trail running shoes. The very few sheer descents almost became slide tracks. But the pleasure did not change despite the adverse elements. The many tourists in the scenery zone will cheer you up loudly, regardless of the rain.

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The Grand Wuyi Trail Race is probably the only trail running event which does not require runners to carry any food along in backpacks, because a variety of sufficient hot food and drink are waiting at every checkpoint. There were porridge, salty mushroom soup, stewed chicken legs, sweet rice cakes, fried dough sticks, pickles and fruits like bananas and oranges.

The atmosphere during the event had been quite enchanting. The organiser had the names of the 12000 runners who registered for the race, and the names of the volunteers printed on a huge board in honour. Brands like Hoka set large stages and small booths for advertisement, with lucky draws to attract the audience. Music and DJ at the finishing line had never stopped for some 40 hours, together with the livestreaming.

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On 8th Nov, a flag handover ceremony was arranged. Janet NG gave the flag of the APTRC to the representatives of Wuyishan Municipal People's Government and the organiser of the Grand Wuyi Trail Race, which means the trails around Wuyishan are to be presented to the top athletes in the Asia-Pacific region in the 2026 APTRC.

Janet and her British husband Steve Brammer tried the 35km on 9th Nov. In recent years, she has switched her role from an elite runner/organiser to an organiser/consultant and has focused more on the development of the non-UTMBs, especially in the Asia-Pacific Region. They liked the natural aesthetic and local features very much, plus the warm and interesting socialising with friends from “the 5 lakes and 4 seas”, both old and new ones, and they can’t wait to see the collaboration of the 2026 APTRC.

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The locals are quite friendly to the runners. The cost of accommodation and local dishes (fish meatball soup, roasted goose, rice noodles and so forth) is quite reasonable. It takes around 40 minutes to ride a shuttle bus or taxi to the start/finish line from the railway or air terminals conveniently.

In 2026, we believe the Wuyishan will leave every runner a happy and deep impression for a lifetime.

Let’s look forward to the 2026 APTRC!

Top Results

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100km

Top 3 Male

1 Zhaoying LIU 劉照應 (CHN) 10:32:00

2 Shiyin LI 利世銀 (CHN) 10:50:15

3 Shantang CUI 崔山堂 (CHN) 10:50:58

Top 3 Female

1 Huihui ZHOU 周慧慧 (CHN, 8th overall) 13:01:30

2 Ronghua DENG 鄧榮華 (CHN) 13:17:16

3 Yuanyu CHEN 陳園玉 (CHN) 13:48:55

The 1st place claimed 20000 CNY prize money respectively.

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60km

Top 3 Male

1 Bate-Mengkai 巴特孟開 (CHN) 06:07:46

2 Chaojiang CHEN 陳朝江 (CHN) 06:15:58

3 Yilong ZHAO 趙義龍 (CHN) 06:35:56

Top 3 Female

1 Anna LI 李安娜 (CHN, 4th overall) 06:52:27

2 Jundan LV 呂軍丹 (CHN) 07:30:21

3 Shuangfang LIU 劉雙芳 (CHN) 07:53:33

The 1st place claimed 10000 CNY prize money respectively.

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35km

Top 3 Male

1 Ji DUO 多吉 (CHN) 03:01:32

2 Jiang CHEN 陳江 (CHN) 03:08:31

3 Shenshen WANG 王申申 (CHN) 03:24:36

Top 3 Female

1 Yan LEI 雷艷 (CHN) 03:20:00

2 Ludan HU 胡露丹 (CHN) 03:58:28

3 Ping HE 何萍 (CHN) 04:21:11

文/趙小釗

圖/大武夷超級山徑賽、APTRC