Three Years of Dedication Setting a Benchmark, Chasing Light from Mountains to Seas: Grand Opening of the 2025 Dinghai Foot Orienteering World Ranking Event in Zhoushan, Zhejiang

On December 7th, the 2025 Dinghai Foot Orienteering World Ranking Event in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, and the Dinghai City Fun Orienteering Run officially kicked off. This top-tier event, certified by the International Orienteering Federation, adopted a dual-event linkage mode of "professional competition + public participation." It attracted top orienteering athletes from 19 countries and regions worldwide, along with over 1,500 citizens and tourists, to jointly embark on this sports feast of "intelligence + physical strength," making Dinghai, on the shores of the East China Sea, once again the focus of world attention.

International Leadership Demonstrates Top Strength, Global Elites Compete for Peak Honors

At 9:00 AM, the opening ceremony of the 2025 Dinghai Foot Orienteering World Ranking Event in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, and the Dinghai City Fun Orienteering Run was grandly held at Dinghai Bay Park.

According to information received, Dinghai serves as a crucial stop for the World Ranking Event. The event was organized by the International Orienteering Federation, with the Aeronautics, Radio, Orienteering and Model Sports Administrative Center of General Administration of Sport of China, the Chinese Radio Sports and Orienteering Association, the People's Government of Dinghai District, Zhoushan, and Zhoushan Bureau of Culture, Radio, Tourism, and Sports as co-organizers. Support for the event came from Zhejiang Administration of Sports and Zhoushan Municipal People's Government, with assistance from Zhoushan Dinghai Bureau of Culture, Radio, Tourism, and Sports and Zhoushan Dinghai Tourism Development Group Co., Ltd. Spanning two days, the event featured two competition categories: the Elite Category and the Open Category. It gathered top orienteering elites from countries and regions including Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland, Ukraine, Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Hong Kong (China), as well as domestic professional orienteering athletes, showcasing the charm of orienteering across ages and borders. The competition routes this year were crafted with great ingenuity, fully utilizing the natural and cultural landscapes of Dinghai where "island, sea, mountain, and city" blend together. From the poetic Sanmao Culture Village on the first day to the "Coastal Defense History Gallery"—Dinghai Bay Park and the Zhoushan Opium War Ruins Park on the second day—the two days of competition, with their distinct styles but equal challenges, posed extremely high demands on the athletes' physical strength, brainpower, and on-the-spot decision-making abilities.

As the starting gun fired, contestants sprinted from the transformed and revitalized Dinghai Bay Park. They navigated rapidly among memorial sculptures, artillery batteries, ruins, and mountain forests, initiating a "race through history." The intense sense of intertwined time and space filled the competition venue with unique cultural tension and visual impact, presenting a high-level sports competitive feast for the audience.

After intense competition, Daniel Vandas from the Czech Republic secured the championship in the Men's Elite category. Yannick Michiels from Belgium claimed the second position, and Jonas Hubacek from the Czech Republic earned the third spot.

In the Women's Elite category, Jana Peterova from the Czech Republic clinched the title. Chen Guomiao from Shanghai, China, secured the second position, while Su Dongzi from Guangdong, China, earned the third position.

National Carnival Unlocks New Scenes of the Ancient City, Cultural and Tourism Integration Paints a Joyful Picture

In sharp contrast to the fierce competition of the professional event was the wave of mass participation in the City Fun Orienteering Run. As the "public special session" of the event, the Fun Run featured "zero threshold, all About the experience, and deep integration," covering all age groups from 3 to 60 years old. With diverse categories such as individual, parent-child, and group, participants could join this "large-scale urban exploration" without professional experience. The 12-15 kilometer fun course connected the coastal scenery of Dinghai Bay Park, the ecological green heart of Donghai Greenway, the urban leisure of Haishan Park, and the millennial cultural context of Dinghai Ancient City. Innovating with a "4+N" task mode, it perfectly interpreted the event concept of "Dinghai Orienteering, Joyful Smart Run." During the process of checking in and breaking through levels, participants could not only learn the Zhoushan dialect, taste special seafood, seek out cultural sites, and complete physical challenges, but also immersively experience the island style of Dinghai where "mountains and seas embrace, and city and scenery blend," making orienteering the best way to explore Dinghai.

Three Years of Deep Cultivation Casting an International City IP, Event Upgrading Empowering High-Quality Development

Since 2023, Dinghai has hosted the World Ranking Event for three consecutive years. This year's event scene was even more exciting and rich, with a carefully designed Dinghai Market Area, Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Experience Area, Gourmet Tasting Area, Cultural and Creative Product Exhibition & Sales Area, Interactive Lucky Draw Area, and Dynamic AR Area. These special booths deeply integrated sports with marine culture, ICH culture, and food technology, attracting many visitors to stop and watch. Beyond the arena, the launch of rich activities such as international elite athletes entering schools for public welfare and Dinghai orienteering coach training classes endowed the event with deeper significance. The creation of scenes throughout the "pre-competition, in-competition, and post-competition" stages further enhanced the influence of the event.

From the first handshake in 2023 to the third collaboration in 2025, the continuous hosting of the World Ranking Event has allowed Dinghai to achieve a transformation from an "international event host" to a "City of Orienteering." Over the past three years, the event has not only made Donghai Greenway, Nandong Art Valley, and Dinghai Ancient City new cultural and tourism landmarks renowned in the Yangtze River Delta, but also promoted the deep integration of "Sports + Culture & Tourism + ICH + Rural Area." This has transformed the "beautiful island" into a "beautiful economy," empowering regional high-quality development. In terms of cultural inheritance, the event has become an important carrier for the vitalization of Dinghai's intangible cultural heritage. ICH projects such as island bamboo weaving, ship model art, and marine fabric art have entered the public eye through event scenes. The innovative mode of "ICH + Sports" has revitalized the millennial cultural context. At the same time, the continuous implementation of the event has deeply rooted the concept of national fitness in the hearts of the people, making orienteering a new choice for citizens' daily leisure and injecting lasting vitality into the city.

Today, the World Ranking Event has become one of the most recognizable international IPs in Dinghai. It has not only polished the city card of "Famous Historical and Cultural City of the Sea" but also built a bridge of communication connecting the world. In the future, Dinghai will continue to use the competition as a medium to deepen the "Sports+" integrated development model, allowing the mountain and sea tracks to continuously burst with new vitality, and letting the thousand-year-old ancient city shine even more dazzlingly on the international stage!