Being from the United States and getting to travel to China to do a race was just amazing. The entire experience was great. The experience started at the hotel where packet pick up was. There was no expo pre-race and you got your race packets in a hotel room-first time for everything!! They were super nice at the pickup and let us exchange our shirts (sizing was a little different than we are used to). We were treated like VIP the entire time.
They shuttled us in buses to the race. There was so much going on there it--much different than any other race I had been to. The language barrier was a bit difficult trying to find bag drop and the starting line but other than that I would say it was very organized. This is where the expo was and there were just a few vendors. The full marathon race was an out and back but you ran alongside the water and it was beautiful.
There were tons of aid stations along the way-some with the race and others were spectators and race groups. They had all kinds of different food along the way-including sushi!
The finish ended with an amazing medal and goodie bag, massages, ice blocks and cupping.
If you ever have the chance to go I would HIGHLY recommend it!!