National Collegiate Mountaineer and Cross-country Challenge to Be HeldThe National Collegiate Mountaineering and Cross-country Challenge will be held in Changbai mountain from August 20-22. Ten teams from top universities, including Beijing University and Tsinghua University, will participate in the challenge.Changbai Mountain is a state natural reserve. It has grand mountains and beautiful scenery. It is an important base for studying earthquakes, volcanoes and weather in China. Li Zhixin, vice-chairman of Chinese Mountaineer Association, said that the theme of this challenge will be "pushing the boundaries and protecting nature." This competition will promote mountain climbing and other outdoors sports to undergraduates, push them to the boundary, raise their awareness about protecting the environment and promote exchanges between the students. Aside from Beijing University and Tsinghua University, Chinese Geology University, South China Normal University, Xi'an Sports Academy, Beijing Normal University, Northeast Finance and Economics University, Jilin University and Yanbian University, will participate in the competition. Every team consists of three men and two women. They will start from the athletic village, at the foot of Changbai mountain, climb the mountain along the ridge, bivouac halfway up the mountain and reach to Weidong frontier defense work station and finish at the west side of the mountain. The athletes should have experience climbing mountains to take part in the competition. Environmental protection will be at the top of the list of judging standards for the match. This match is organized by the State Physical Culture and Sports Committee and sponsored by the Chinese Mountaineer Association. It also is one of the events in the 2000 Chinese Korean ethnic folk tourism exposition held in Yanji. |
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