Our first trip to China was in 2017. During our two-week summer vacation, we covered a ton of ground: we spotted pandas in Chengdu, took the high train to Lhasa, rode a tandem bicycle around Xi’an’s old city wall and clambered around a section of unrestored Great Wall outside of Beijing.
We liked the country so much that in May 2019, we moved to China! But it was a strange time to do so. We lived in Qingdao for eight months – until we became pandemic refuges during our annual trip home. But that’s another story.
My favorite thing about our short stint in Qingdao was living below Fushan: the prettiest mini mountain I’ve ever met! Those rocky slopes were our daily playground. There was also scenic and storied Laoshan towering just to the north of our city. We also enjoyed a scenic seaside path for all of our speedwork and easy recovery runs. It was a terrific place to live and train.
We also ran a handful of races in China. Before The 9 Dragons Ultra in 2019, we went to Hong Kong on a recce running mission that introduced us to one of our favorite cities. Newly minted big fans of HK, we returned to rock the Hong Kong 100! On the mainland, we also ventured out to the remote Gansu province to run The Devil’s Ridge 60k during our China year – and that was one special race!
