China’s 34th Dalian Marathon deployed smart event tools

China’s 34th Dalian Marathon was held on 20th October having attracted 30,000 participants successively dashing past the starting line.

As an A1 marathon certified by the China Athletics Association, this year's Dalian Marathon embraced smart event organisation by introducing face recognition and intelligent material collection systems. BeiDou satellite technology offered precise technical support for the safe conduct of the event, enabling accurate monitoring and management.

Dalian is the second largest city in Liaoning Province, Dongbei (North East), China and has won many laudatory titles, such as "Global Livable City", "Culture City of East Asia", "Best Tourist City in China" and  "Top Ten Most Livable Cities in China".

Because of this, the Dalian Marathon, or ‘Da Ma’ has attracted many marathon enthusiasts at home and abroad to enter the race. This event, which started in 1987, is the earliest marathon in China to reach a scale of ten thousand participants, and it enjoys a high reputation and influence at home and abroad.

Along both sides of the course, there were also distinctive cultural cheering stations featuring war drums for cheering, photo check-in-spots, cheerleading performances, folk music bands, and square dancing as well as Dalian cultural performances such as Danxian Paiqu (single-stringed plucked ballad), Taiping Drum Dance, Changsuihua Drum Dance (long tassel flower drum dance), and Dalian Puppet Shows.

This year's event featured three categories: full marathon, half marathon, and fun run. The 42.195 km full marathon route started from the fashionable and modern Donggang Business District, passed through centuries-old Zhongshan Square, crossed Zhongshan Road, the main road of the city. It then turned at the vast Xinghai Bay, followed by a sea-crossing bridge, and returned via the tree-lined Huihua Avenue and the "century-traversing" tram.

Dalian also introduced a range of preferential cultural and tourism policies, which will last until the end of October.

Experienced runner Kanji ITO, who travelled from Japan to participate in the Dalian Marathon noted this is his second time taking part in the event and shared "every section of the course is particularly beautiful; it feels as if we are running through a painting. Dalian's citizens are especially enthusiastic, cheering us on throughout the entire race. At the start, I also saw many well-known runners from abroad, which is a testament to the strong appeal of the Dalian Marathon."