On March 22, a reporter learned from the State Sports Bureau that the 2013 AA 100km Erhai Lake Hiking & Plateau Endurance Run, jointly organized by the Dali Prefecture Sports Bureau and the Yunnan Mountaineering & Outdoor Sports Association, and hosted by Yunnan AA Outdoor Sports Club and the Dali Prefecture Mountaineering Association, will take place on April 4–5.
The hiking and endurance run route will circle Erhai Lake counterclockwise, covering a total distance of 100 kilometers. The theme of the event is “Green Outdoor, Low-Carbon Travel; Eco-Friendly Outdoor, Starting with Me.”
The AA 100km Hiking event was initiated and promoted by Yunnan AA Outdoor Sports Club. It is a large-scale public welfare activity spontaneously organized and operated by outdoor sports and hiking enthusiasts, aiming to embody the goals of urban dwellers tempering their willpower, cultivating perseverance, building physical strength, and emphasizing teamwork. It carries strong social welfare aspirations and positive, open, fashionable elements.
The design of this event’s route is an important measure for Dali to develop rural tourism resources, build distinctive tourism villages around Erhai Lake, and cultivate unique leisure and vacation tourism products. It also serves as a successful model for coordinating urban and rural development through tourism and promoting new rural construction. By combining the beautiful natural scenery with fitness and leisure activities such as hiking and cycling around Erhai Lake, the event holds great appeal and can attract more competitions and activities to Dali, establishing the Erhai Lake loop as a classic route.
The specific hiking route will start from Xiaguan Mingzhu Square to Shuanglang on the first day, and continue from Shuanglang to the South Gate of Dali Ancient Town on the second day, covering a total distance of approximately 100 kilometers. The hiking activity is divided into a Standard Group and an Experience Group: the Standard Group will complete the full hike, while the Experience Group will only participate on the first day. Participants must form teams of four, with each team including at least one female member, and the finishing time will be based on the last team member to arrive. The endurance run can be participated in individually or as a group, and all participants must have previously completed a 100km hike or a full marathon.
Currently, registration is open across various regions. As of press time, the number of registrants has reached 450, with particularly enthusiastic sign-ups from the Kunming area.