This year’s Zhangye Outdoor Sports Festival is jointly organized by the Gansu Provincial Sports Bureau and the Zhangye Municipal People's Government and will be held in phases across various counties and districts. In addition to the 100 km ultra-trail race, a National Outdoor Sports Carnival will be held in Gaotai County; the China Rally Championship and a Qixi Festival Camping Rally will take place in Ganzhou; the Tsinghua EMBA Hiking Challenge and the China Fitness Famous Mountains Mountaineering Race—Yanzhi Mountain Heroines' Mountaineering Race will be held in Shandan; the Mountain Racing Challenge and National Mass Mountaineering and Fitness Assembly, a Camping Rally, and the National Winter Mountain Outdoor Challenge and Ice & Snow Festival will be held in Minle; a 10,000-Person Hiking Challenge will take place in Zhangye National Wetland Park; and a Camping Rally and Mini Fun Marathon will be held in Linze.
This is the second time Zhangye has hosted an Outdoor Sports Festival. Located in the central part of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu, Zhangye was a key stop along the ancient Silk Road. Bordered by the Qilian Mountains to the south and the desert and Gobi to the north, the area features diverse landscapes including glaciers and snow-capped mountains, forest meadows, desert dunes, colorful Danxia formations, and wetland reeds, making it an ideal destination for outdoor sports.
In 2013, Zhangye integrated various outdoor sports events and held its first two-month-long Outdoor Sports Festival. This year, both the scale of the events and the duration have seen significant expansion compared to the previous edition.