2017 China Climbing Club League Gansu Jiandeyijian Cup Lanzhou-Anning Station Opens ...

At 19:30 on the evening of September 8, 2017, the opening ceremony of the 2017 China Climbing Club League "Gansu Jiandeyijian Cup" Lanzhou-Anning Station was successfully held at the Gansu Grand Theatre. This also means that starting from September 9, outstanding athletes selected through layers of competition from climbing clubs across the country will compete for the championship over two days at the newly built climbing competition venue in Renshou Mountain, Anning District, Lanzhou City.

Luo Shen, Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese Mountaineering Association and Director of the Olympic Preparation Office, Song Jupu, former Major General of the General Staff Department and Chief Advisor of Shizhi Sports, Ma Caiyun, Vice Mayor of the Lanzhou Municipal People’s Government, Dan Hanrong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Lanzhou Municipal People’s Government, Liu Sheng, Principal of the Gansu Provincial Aviation Sports School and Executive Vice Chairman of the Gansu Provincial Mountaineering Association, Wang Fang, Secretary of the CPC Anning District Committee of Lanzhou, Hu Jihé, Chairman of Gansu No. 1 Construction Group Co., Ltd., and Liu Dake, Chairman of Shizhi Sports, attended the opening ceremony of the league. Zhang Jibin, Standing Committee Member of the CPC Anning District Committee and Executive Deputy District Governor, presided over the ceremony. As a branded event, the China Climbing Club League is a national Class A event aimed at "preparing for the Olympics." Its first-ever staging in Gansu Province is a major milestone in the development of Anning’s cultural, sports, and tourism sectors, and will greatly promote the visibility of both Anning and Lanzhou. Wang Fang, Secretary of the CPC Anning District Committee, on behalf of the District Committee, the District People’s Congress, the District Government, the District Political Consultative Conference, and the event organizing committee, extended a warm welcome to the leaders, guests, athletes, and referees. She noted that climbing is an emerging and trendy sport that combines "adventure, challenge, entertainment, competition, and leisure," integrating "courage, beauty, and wisdom," often referred to as the "ballet on the cliffs." Following the August 2016 decision by the International Olympic Committee to include competitive climbing as an official event in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the sport has garnered widespread attention from all sectors of society. The league's first-ever hosting in northwestern China not only enhances the mass appeal of professional climbing competitions but also aims to establish a comprehensive service platform for the area’s over one hundred thousand young people and climbing enthusiasts, thereby elevating the overall level of climbing. At the end of the ceremony, representatives of athletes and referees took the oath, and Luo Shen, Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese Mountaineering Association and Director of the Olympic Preparation Office, declared the competition officially open.

Opening Ceremony Site

Zhang Jibin, Standing Committee Member of the CPC Anning District Committee and Executive Deputy District Governor of Lanzhou, presided over the opening ceremony

Wang Fang, Secretary of the CPC Anning District Committee of Lanzhou, delivered a speech

Luo Shen, Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese Mountaineering Association and Director of the Olympic Preparation Office, announced the start of the competition

Climbing with Passion, Preparing for the Olympics

Themed "Passion & Ascent," this edition of the China Climbing Club League features both elite and professional groups for male and female athletes. Competition rules follow those of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). On September 9, events include men’s and women’s difficulty preliminaries, elite group men’s and women’s speed preliminaries and finals (on random routes), and men’s and women’s difficulty finals. On September 10, there will be men’s and women’s bouldering preliminaries (open format), professional group men’s and women’s speed preliminaries and finals (on standard routes), followed by the award ceremony for the China Climbing Club League "Gansu Jiandeyijian Cup" Lanzhou-Anning Station after the men’s and women’s bouldering finals.

Zhang Yuettong competing in the difficulty event

Difficulty event preliminaries and finals

In addition to climbing competitions, the event will feature exciting band performances, climbing baby shows, the Enjoy Climbing Carnival theme activities, climbing salons, climbing knowledge lectures, and on-site lucky draws, enhancing both the professionalism of the competition and its entertainment value and public engagement.

Climbing Baby Performance Show

Band Performance

Northwest China’s Largest Comprehensive Climbing Venue

This league marks the first time China’s highest-level climbing club competition is held in Lanzhou, Gansu, attracting widespread attention from all walks of life. Also making its debut in Lanzhou is the competition’s climbing wall. Located in Renshou Mountain Scenic Area in Anning District, it is China’s first artificial climbing wall built according to the latest international standards following the introduction of the new global competition regulations. The wall includes separate sections for speed climbing, difficulty climbing, and bouldering, capable of meeting all formats and specifications of international climbing competitions. The speed climbing wall is 17 meters high and 12 meters wide, featuring four lanes that meet both random and standard route standards. The difficulty climbing wall is 17 meters high and 16 meters wide, accommodating simultaneous competitions on four routes. The bouldering wall is 6 meters high and 30 meters wide, allowing ten routes to be used at once.

Difficulty and Speed Climbing Walls

Additionally, the climbing panels are made using cutting-edge nanotechnology and resin honeycomb materials, making it the thickest climbing wall in China, with all metrics exceeding current national standards. The wall also features the nation’s first illuminated and remotely controllable holds, enabling nighttime climbing and greatly improving the spectator experience. For the first time, a rubber running track has been installed in the athletes’ isolation zone, providing optimal conditions for warm-up and preparation.

"Sports + Tourism" Helps Lanzhou-Anning Forge a New Tourism Model

Lanzhou-Anning District recently hosted the China Hot Air Balloon Club League at the end of July and now welcomes the China Climbing Club League, which will significantly boost the development of a modern, integrated “sports + tourism + culture” tourism industry in the area. With these two national-level events, Anning District plans to build hot air balloon and climbing bases in the future, developing a range of “sports + tourism” products such as hot air balloon flights, low-altitude tourism, outdoor sports, and competitive climbing. These initiatives aim to drive regional industrial growth, inject strong momentum into the city’s economy, ignite public enthusiasm for sports, and serve as a key move in fostering integrated development of the sports and tourism industries in Anning.

The event’s venue, Renshou Mountain Scenic Area, is located amidst peach orchards north of Liujia Fort in Anning District, 15 kilometers from the city center.Leveraging the ecological resources of Renshou Mountain, the CPC Anning District Committee and District Government have developed the Renshou Mountain Ecological and Cultural Tourism Zone. It features premium ecological gardens, farm stays, a Ming-Qing retro street, complemented by a thousand-acre jujube orchard, a thousand-acre “utopian peach garden,” and the Danxia landform attraction known as the “Heavenly Axe Sand Palace,” forming a nationally recognized ecotourism destination.

This event is jointly organized by the Chinese Mountaineering Association, the Lanzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the Lanzhou Municipal Bureau of Sports, and the People’s Government of Anning District, Lanzhou. It is hosted by the Cultural and Sports Bureau of Anning District, Lanzhou, and the Lanzhou Urban Construction Investment Co., Ltd. of Anning District, and exclusively operated by Shizhi Sports.