The Gobi March will take place in the Gobi Desert of northwest China. At 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square kilometers) the Gobi is nearly twice the size of Texas and sprawls across much of China and Mongolia. The Gobi (Mongolian word for "waterless place") certainly lives up to its name with less than three inches of rain falling each year. The Gobi is the world's largest cold winter desert, made up mostly of mountains, rocks, grasslands, salt flats and sand dunes. Archaeologists believe that there are many yet to be discovered cities laying hidden in the sands of the Gobi.

Terrain: Gobi March competitors can expect a wide variety of terrain including: slot canyons, salt flats, rivers, mountain ridges, rocky terrain and sand dunes. Although the Gobi contains less sand than the Sahara, competitors can expect, at times, 1000-foot high sand dunes. In addition, at times the Gobi can reach an altitude up to 14,000 feet in some places.

Weather: The weather in the Gobi can be extreme - very hot days that reach well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and cold nights that drop below freezing. Competitors should also be prepared for violent sand storms and strong winds that are prone to hit during April, May and sometimes June.

Posted October 14, 2006

Next June, Kashgar – the Ancient Silk Road’s gateway between China and Central Asia on the westernmost edge of the great Gobi Desert-- will be the starting point for the Gobi March (China) 2007.  The 2007 event will take competitors farther west in China and further remote then previous events into uncharted territories of the Gobi Desert.  The preliminary course scouting team of RacingThePlanet’s Catherine Cole and photographer Michael Shoaf have just returned from Kashgar after taking a peek at what the Gobi March 2007 has in store.

Each Gobi March takes competitors through stretches of the Gobi Desert, which means many things in the local dialects but generally refers to the black rocks, vastness and dryness of this desert.  The Gobi, the largest desert in Asia, is a combination of varying ecological and geographic regions that extend from Mongolia in the north all the way to the foothills of the Pamir mountains in the west. Parts of the Gobi are known by their independent names, such as the Taklamakan desert, on the edge of which the 2007 event will take place.  Starting and finishing in Kashgar, competitors will be introduced to the stunning mountain scenery of the Pamirs, some of the world's tallest mountains and also exposed to plenty of open flat, black rocky terrain that the Gobi is renowned for.

Departing Kashgar you are quickly reminded that this is indeed desert territory.  Just to the east is the great Taklamakan so the air is thick with heat and sand, and the roads dry and dusty. The red colors of the mountain ridges and the jagged peaks that loom beyond, bring hints of both the Turpan Basin Gobi March 2005 course and the Hami Region Gobi March 2006 alpine course. However, this upcoming Gobi March is guaranteed to be a completely different experience. The area has been closely guarded by the Chinese government due to its border position and distance from Beijing, so there have been very few outsiders freely exploring.  RacingThePlanet has been given special permission to traverse this mysterious land.

Open rocky expanses give way to deep canyons and fertile river valleys.  The area is hydrated by mountain run-off during the summer months.  Along the winding river canyons, there is the sporadic village where people have been living off the land for centuries.   The occasional satellite dish perched high above in the rock cliffs is the only giveaway that the area has been touched by modern conveniences.  The Gobi March 2007 course will pass through many of these villages, populated by primarily Uygurs, but also Krygyz and Tajik villagers.  As the scouting team traveled through these lands they were often mistaken for Tajiks, the closest many of the villagers have seen to outsiders.

The course will likely follow canyons that flow from the mountain ranges to the river valleys, therefore affording plenty of river crossings. There is no transport infrastructure out there so the majority of the course is accessible only by horse / donkey paths or single lane dirt roads. What looks like 60 miles (100 kilometers) between GPS points took 10 hours+ to traverse in a 4-wheel drive. The terrain is rugged and the weather will be extreme but plenty of stunning vistas are guaranteed. The Gobi Desert is known for having the most extreme weather on Earth, which can by verified by participants in the last events who were battered by heat and wind.

Kashgar itself, the meeting point for the Gobi March 2007, is a wonderful mix of Central Asian and Han Chinese culture.  The center of town is the Id Kah Mosque, one of the largest mosques in China, that can hold up to 20,000 people during annual festivals.  Beyond that lies the "old city", a hobbled mix of mud-brick homes connected by narrow alleys with a life about it that seems immune from the vast city spreading beyond it.  Currently the old town is the site of filming for the Hollywood film "The Kiterunner," due in theaters in 2007 and based on the bestselling book by Khaled Hosseini.

This year's Gobi March, located around Kashgar, will be the fourth event located along the ancient Silk Road – past locations included Dunhuang, Turpan and Hami

This year contains a record field of roughly 185 individuals from 23 countries

A total of 23 nationalities will be taking part

The youngest competitor is 19 years old (from Canada) and the oldest is 70 years old (from the United States)

The largest contingent of competitors is from the United Kingdom followed by the United States

The largest contingent of competitors from Asia hails from South Korea followed by Japan

85 percent of the competitors are male and 15 percent female

The average age of competitors is 39 years of age

There will be a total of 50 international staff and volunteers at the Gobi March. A total of 50 locals will also support the event. The volunteers come from 17 different countries.

The host city for the Gobi March (China) 2007 will be Kashgar or 'Kashi.' Kashgar is in the extreme West of China, the Southwest extreme of Xinjiang, at a junction between two branches of the old Silk Road. Kashi has been an important trading centre since the days of the Silk Road, and still is today. The population is a mixture of Ugyurs, Han chinese, Kyrgizs, Tajiks and Uzbeks. Together with central-asian merchants visiting for the markets and workshops, the city boasts a colorful ethnic variety. The city is said to have the largest bazaar in Asia. The Kashgar oasis is where both the northern and southern routes from China around the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts converge. It is also almost directly north of Tashkurgan through which traffic passed from Gandhara, in what is now northern Pakistan, and Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. About 200 kilometers west of the present city, just past the present border with Kyrgyztan, the main Silk Road crossed into the head of the Alai Valley from where relatively easy routes led southwest to Balkh or northwest to Ferghana . The present main road now travels northwest through the Torugart pass. The famed Karakorum highway, the highest paved road in the world, links Islamabad, Pakistan with Kashgar over the Khunjerab Pass. Bus routes exist for passenger travel south into Pakistan. Kyrgyzstan is also accessible from Kashgar, via the Torugart Pass and Irkeshtam Pass. Tashkorgan County, the location of the Gobi March (China) 2007, is located in the eastern part of the Pamir Plateau, where the Kunlun, Kara Kunlun, Hindukush and Tian Shan mountains come together, at the borders with Afghanistan (Wakhan Corridor), Tajikistan (Gorno-Badakhshan Province) and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. The county seat is the city of Tashkorgan. The second-highest mountain of the world, Mt. Qogir ('K2,' 8611 meters) is located partly in Tashkorgan, as well as Mt. Mutzagata, also known as 'K5' at 7546 meters. The two main rivers are the Tashkorgan River and the Tiznap (or Tiznef) River. There are several hot springs and resources of gold, iron, and copper

Stage 1:  Tajikistan in China (35 kilometers)

Stage 2:  Datong Fork (35 kilometers)

Stage 3:  Stairway to Heaven (40 kilometers)

Stage 4:  The River that Never Ends (45 kilometers)

Stage 5:  The Long March (80 kilometers)

Stage 6:  In the Shadow of Chairman Mao (20 kilometers)

Note:  The distances are approximations and will likely change.The map below is an outline of the expected course which starts around Tashkorgan in Xinjiang Province, China

There will be 19 competitor tents – each will sleep up to ten.  The tents were handmade locally in both Urumqi and Kashgar.  Each tent has been named after a local minority group or a geographic reference. Competitors have been given the opportunity to select some of their tentmates but most will be meeting their tentmates for the first time when they arrive at the first campsite, Camp Silk Road. Tentmates are carefully assigned taking into account languages spoken, friendships, country of residence and work background. The tents are arranged to provide competitors with the opportunity to meet diverse and interesting people from all over the world. Many long-lasting friendships are formed

Notes from the Field, 28 May 2007

The journey will begin in Kashgar with a stunning drive along the famed Karakoram Highway. The Karakoram Highway is the highest paved international road in the world. It connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, at an altitude of 4,693 metres (15,397 feet), by far the highest paved international border crossing in the world.  After a six – seven hour drive, competitors will arrive at the first campsite, a location just off the Karakoram Highway within a stone's throw from Tajikistan and Pakistan.  Competitors will encounter mainly Tajiks for the first two days as the course will be in area known as Tashkorgan Tajik Autonomous County which is comprised of 84% Tajik minorities.  Tashkorgan is located in the eastern part of the Pamir Plateau, where the Kunlun, Kara Kunlun, Hindukush and Tian Shan mountains come together. The second tallest mountain in the world, K2, is located partly in Tashkorgan.  The first campsite is situated just outside an old Tajik village alongside a river formed from snowmelt from the mountains.  From the starting point of 7700ft (2300m) competitors will snake their way downstream crossing small bridges on their way through the small lush green oases settlements to the second campsite. Throughout the stage snow capped mountains cast their shadow over the valley. The most dominant will be 'Mt. Muztagh' or 'K5' as it is more commonly known.  The course then continues to follow a stream downhill until a spectacular fork in the river where competitors will cross a suspension bridge and turn upstream. From the fork in the river the landscape becomes less hospitable with only river banks and sand visible inside the canyon.  The stage will culminate at a village after crossing another suspension bridge, which is at the base of a mountain pass. This campsite will be unique in the fact that competitors will spend the night in the homes of the local Tajik people (in their tent groups).  Competitors will leave the enchanting village covered in apricot trees and irrigation channels to make their way up and over a mountain pass crossing the highest point of the Gobi March at 12400ft (3800m). This mountain pass has been renamed the 'Gobi March' by the locals.  As competitors reach the top and start their decent, the pass opens up to lavish pasture lands. Before long competitors are back in a gorge following another riverbed downstream before arriving at the camp situated on a small braid in the river. Leaving the campsite and running downstream through the canyon in the river bed the walls of the canyon grows narrower and narrower until competitors run through a narrow slot in the river to exit the canyon. Making their way out of the canyon, villages reappear on the horizon. Following terrain lined with green apricot trees, crops and the ever-present trickling of channel irrigations systems, competitors wind their way through the villages into the open. After passing under a bridge at a small village the terrain changes dramatically from lush and cultivated oases to dry and hostile as the river starts to go dry.  As competitors enter the second canyon, the Gobi's real influence is vivid with desolate, dry and sharp hills present. Navigating through the maze of canyons competitors finally arrive at the camp in the shadow of the following day's canyon accent.  From the campsite, competitors will make a two-kilometer ascent to a highpoint at 8200ft (2500m). Views from the top are simply amazing with vista views of the desolate hills for miles with only the occasional dry bush for company. Pushing over the top and down through the canyon, competitors will exit onto a vast Gobi plateau for the final Long March in the soft sand to the last campsite. For those that arrive in the dark, the morning view will be breathtaking with views of K2, K5 and numerous other snow capped mountains in background of the Gobi.  The Gobi March (China) 2007 will conclude with a short run from the Old City of Kashgar to the finish line which will be just in front of the 400-year-old Id Kah Mosque.

Notes:  Please prepare for altitude, however, no campsite will be located above 8,500ft (2590m).  Temperatures are expected to reach about 100F (mid 30s C) during the day and could fall to as low as 50F (10C) at night. In the Gobi Desert, the wind is unpredictable.  As in all the deserts of the world, there is always a remote chance of rain.