-“Are you tired?” “Yes.”
- “Does your feet hurt?” “Yes.”
- “Will you come next year?” “Yes!”
On August 23, by the ancient city of Xiakou, the 2015 Tencent Yixingjia Ancient Great Wall Charity Challenge successfully concluded.
After three days of challenging the scorching sun and the Gobi Desert at the foot of the ancient Great Wall, the Himalaya-Zhiyuan Team 1 stood out with a total time of 20:05, winning the championship.
Challenging the limits of the Gobi, the value of charity knows no price
Compared to the 2014 Tencent Yixingjia, this year’s event elevated both in terms of charitable fundraising and trail difficulty. Over 100 kilometers, 800 participants walked from dawn till dusk every day, passing beacon towers, Gobi deserts, barren beaches, and wheat fields. They advanced under the blazing sun and camped in the wild. The sweat and hardships endured along the way greatly tested each participant’s endurance, physical strength, and mental resilience.
As one teammate put it, “The joy of hiking lies in the long self-challenge when the finish line is out of sight and the cheers of triumph upon seeing it.” This event was not easy — the four-person teams had to reach the checkpoints before the cutoff time. Team members supported and encouraged each other, and various “ingenious strategies” were employed.
As one participant said, “What is a Yixingjia? It’s helping a teammate who’s struggling at a deep ditch, walking alongside someone who’s lost, carrying a teammate’s token as she drops out due to injury to help her finish, or carrying a teammate’s belief to complete the course when they can’t participate due to route issues.”
To allow Yixingjia participants to exchange ideas and connect with outdoor charity enthusiasts from across the country, the organizing committee specially arranged a rich variety of camp life activities. Open-air real-life libraries, “Great Wall Good Voice,” birthday celebrations, and other camp events made each Yixing night colorful. For the participants, supporting each other during the day to complete the challenge and sharing thoughts at night built invaluable bonds among Yixingjia members.
From online to offline, “Walking equals doing charity”
This year’s event adopted an “online charity” approach, making charity simpler and more transparent. Many participants said that neither they nor their friends knew about such methods of giving. Thanks to Yixingjia, they launched their first “Together Donation” project. “This has refreshed our understanding of doing charity,” many contestants said.
During the offline walk, Yixingjia participants began paying attention to ecological and cultural issues along the route. The team from Shenzhen, “Alexandar” and “Watching You Act Cool,” carried garbage bags throughout the journey and picked up trash along the way. At the award ceremony, the organizing committee presented them with the “Green Great Wall” award to encourage more people to spontaneously protect the environment and the Great Wall.
Lin Wenchao, the captain of the “Four Great Constables” team, used his arms to push his wheelchair along the trail. When the wheelchair couldn’t pass certain sections, team members took turns carrying or supporting him. On the first day, the wheelchair malfunctioned, so the other three teammates completed the course on behalf of the “Sonorous Knight” Lin Wenchao, under his name. They hoped to promote the concept of barrier-free facility construction through this act, enabling more people with disabilities to participate in outdoor activities on par with everyone else.
This year’s Yixingjia Ancient Great Wall Charity Challenge combined outdoor hiking with modern philanthropy. Each Yixingjia participant, through their actions over the three days, demonstrated the power of this connection and embodied the idea that walking equals doing charity.
As Chen Yidan, Tencent’s founding father and lifetime honorary advisor, said at the award ceremony, “The outdoors + charity built by the internet is not just about competition, but more importantly, it brings rediscovery and exploration, and a closer connection between people and the land, and between people themselves.”
From Chen Yidan’s opening speech at the ceremony, “Walking Equals Charity,” to the successful conclusion of this Yixingjia event, a new path toward a healthy and charitable future has been paved. Yes, charity and the outdoors, online and offline, will become increasingly important in the future.
