Vatternrundan China

Vatternrundan is the world biggest exercise road bike race in the world. It is held every year on the second Saturday of June and goes one lap around Sweden’s second biggest lake-Lake Vattern-a stretch of almost 300 km.

Vatternrundan was exported 2007 to China by Nordic Ways in cooperation with the Swedish Vatternrundan organization. The first two years it was held in at the foot of Changbai Mountain in northern China. The mountain has a crater lake or “sky pond” on its top.

In 2009, Vatternrundan China moved to the bustling small town Yuxi in Yunnan Province. This gave us the chance to have the Chinese Vatternrundan actually going around a lake just as the original event in Sweden. “Lake Vattern of China” is Fuxian Lake, Chinas 2^nd deepest lake and a large sweet water reservoir some miles from Yuxi. Fuxian Lake enjoys special environmental protection and the participants are blessed with stunning views of the blue waters and farm villages along the track of almost 180km. 

Read more comprehensive information about the race by clicking on the link "General Info" to the left

    

The Swedish Vatternrundan  

The first Vatternrundan was held in 1965. 328 men and 6 women started in this first race. The second year, number of participants had risen to 1000 and has increased ever since. Vatternrundan has already been held 42 times in Sweden and more distances like "Half Vattern and "Girls Vattern has been added.

 Every year there are nearly 18.000 elite and amateur participants from more than 35 countries taking part in Vatternrundan Sweden. On the way, 9 stations with food and water are built up. The participants’ just need to get to each station in the designated time and can complete the distance this way.

Yuxi, Host city of Vatternrundan China
Yuxi is situated in the center of Yunnan Province, only 98 km from Kunming. The county covers an area of 15,000 sq.km. Ethnic minority groups includes the Yi, Hani, Dai, Hui, Mongolian, Bai, Miao and Lahu people.Yuxi City is well known for the Yuxi tobacco factory, the base of Asia's first and the world's fifth cigarette industry-"Yuxi Cigarette Plant of Yunnan Hongta Group", which produces the both homely and worldly famous brand-Hongtashan.

Yuxi city has rich natural resources and a long history rich in civilization. The coverage of forest accounts for one third of the city's area. Here lies the natural greenhouse, which is abundant with tropical fruit and early winter vegetables. Yuxi is also the hometown of Nie Er, a musician who composed the National Anthem.

Among the plateau lakes in central Yunnan Province, Fuxian Lake is the second deepest lake in China, with an area of 216.6 square kilometers, has a circumference of 100.8 kilometers, an average depth of more than 95.2 meters and it's deepest point is 158.9 meters. It has a water storage capacity of 20.618 billion cubic meters, forming 67.4% of the water in the nine major plateau lakes in Yunnan Province.

Fuxian Lake is famous for its beautiful scenery and its Kanglang Fish. In the 90's, an ancient group of buildings was found underwater. Tourism developed rapidly as many people were curious about this so-called sunken kingdom.In 2001, more than a decade after the discovery, China Central Television broadcast live the whole process of the inspection work on the underwater architectural complex in Fuxian Lake. This event once again brought Fuxian Lake into the spotlight. 

 It was said that the Jade Emperor in heaven found a bright pearl imbedded in a colorful cloud in Southern China, whose beauty was beyond description, so that he ordered two immortals with the surnames of Shi and Xiao to draw the beautiful scenery and bring it to heaven. When they came to the Fuxian Lake, they enjoyed the scenery so much that they didn't want to leave. With their arms on each others shoulders they stood looking out over the lake, forgetting everything else, eventually to be transformed into rocks. Hence the name of Fuxian Lake ( 抚fu=arm over another’s shoulder, 仙xian=Gods, 湖hu=Lake). 

Fuxian Lake enjoys a long and mysterious history . It is said that an ancient city called Yuyuan present in the Han & Tang periods and located somewhere on the lake then suddenly disappeared, sinking in the lake.

If you want to know more about the City under Fuxian lake, here is an article about it:
Mysterious Fuxian Lake‘s Secrets told   China Daily, E-zine