Asian Orienteering Championships kick off in Yanshan, Guilin, with seven teams competing on the karst track

China News Service, Guilin, November 9th (Deng Junbin, Yang Zongsheng) On November 9th, the 2026 Asian Orienteering Championships and Asian Youth Orienteering Championships kicked off in Yanshan District, Guilin City, Guangxi. A total of 7 teams and 200 athletes from China, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Japan and other countries, as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions of China participated.

This is the first time that the Asian Orienteering Championships and the Asian Youth Orienteering Championships will be held in Guilin, Guangxi, China after they were combined for the first time in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2024. This event is hosted by the International Orienteering Federation and the Asian Orienteering Association, hosted by the Aviation Radio Model Sports Management Center of the State Sports General Administration, the China Radio and Orienteering Association, and the Sports Bureau of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is also implemented by the Guangxi Social Sports Development Center and the Yanshan District People's Government of Guilin.

The event consists of three major events: short distance race, middle distance race, and relay race. It is divided into two categories: men's and women's, covering a total of 8 categories: under 16 years old, under 18 years old, under 20 years old, and 21 years old elite group. The age requirement of participating athletes is 13 years or above. The short-distance race is held in a park environment, testing the ability to quickly judge routes; the middle-distance race is held in open or semi-open pine forests, testing forest map recognition and cross-country ability; the relay race has three players per team, and they complete the race in farmland, bamboo forest and village roads.

The venue is located in the core area of ​​karst landforms in Yanshan District, and the track is built based on landmarks such as Caoping Hui Township, Guilin Botanical Garden, and Yuzi Paradise. The area around Caoping Hui Township, where the opening ceremony and relay race is located, is dominated by farmland, bamboo forests and villages, with gentle terrain and a well-developed road network; the short-distance competition venue is rich in vegetation and has a network of roads; the middle-distance competition venue is mainly open and semi-open pine forests, with good visibility and traffic conditions.

Orienteering originated from military sports in 1895 and has a history of more than 130 years. This event also brought this time-honored sport together with Guilin’s karst landscape for the first time.

Jihun Kim, a contestant from Seoul, South Korea, who came to Guilin for the first time, was deeply impressed by the city: "Guilin is a fusion of natural landscape and urban life. Other cities show more architecture and technology, but Guilin allows people to enjoy nature and mountain scenery." He said that participating in the event itself is a unique experience, and he can adapt to the current competition arrangement and strive to get a good ranking on this basis.

Liang Lin, the delegation leader of the Orienteering Federation of Hong Kong, China, said: "The event has chosen a brand-new area that has not held similar events in the past 23 years. It complies with the fairness requirements of the International Orienteering Federation, avoids participants being familiar with the venue in advance, and ensures fair competition for all players." He pointed out that the venue for this event is mainly Guilin's characteristic village terrain, with mountains, rivers, woods and other diverse landforms, which will test the contestants' physical fitness, orienteering skills, map reading ability and on-the-spot psychological adjustment ability.

This event aims to promote the development of the outdoor sports industry, stimulate regional consumption vitality, enhance the city's brand image, and help build Guilin into a world-class tourism city through the in-depth integration of "sports + cultural tourism businesses".