How do you fancy your chances of navigating your way across a huge patch of the planet with no flights, no phones and only around £2,000 between you and your travel companion? While most of us probably fancy our chances when we’re curled up on the sofa, it’s a reality for the five duos competing in the BBC’s fifth series of Race Across The World.
Series one saw participants race from London to Singapore, and series two kicked off in Mexico City and culminated in Ushuaia, Argentina, the world’s southernmost city. Series three was a race across Canada from Vancouver to Newfoundland and Labrador, and series four launched in Japan with the finish line in Indonesia.
So, what about series five? This time the teams will be racing 14,000km across Asia, beginning in China and travelling through Nepal before reaching the finish line in Kanniyakumari, the southernmost point of India, all with the lowest budget in the show’s history – just £1,000 per person.
These are all the locations on Race Across The World series 5 so far
Episode one
The Great Wall of China
In the first episode of series 5, the race begins at the Great Wall of China, overlooking Huanghuacheng, a village 80km north of Beijing.
Beijing
China’s sprawling capital city is the first challenge for the racers (no spoilers, but this is where some contestants find themselves stuck).
Huangling
This village, made up of Hui-style buildings hanging off a hillside, is the first checkpoint for the contestants. It’s located in the Jiangxi Province, 2,000km south of the Great Wall of China. On the show, we see an aerial view of the village and the local craft of drying chillis on rooftops.
With some teams choosing to take the rural inland route and others opting to travel via China’s big cities on high-speed trains, some of the other pitstops in episode one include Shanghai, Luoyang, Qingdao, Qufu and Bengbu.
Episode two
East China Sea
The second episode of series five saw teams embarking on the next leg of their journey, and several pairs city-hopped their way along the coast of the East China Sea, which is a portion of the Pacific Ocean. Cities along this coast include Shanghai, Ningbo and Xiamen.
Hainan
This island is China’s southernmost province, which itself includes Hainan Island as well as some smaller islands in the South China Sea. It’s accessible by ferry, but as you’ll see in the episode, sometimes a typhoon can get in the way.
Sanya
Sanya is the southernmost city on Hainan Island, dubbed ‘China’s Hawaii’, making it the southernmost city in the country, and the location of the race’s second checkpoint. Pictured is the Guanyin of Nanshan, an 108-metre statue of the bodhisattva Guanyin, a vital figure in Chinese Buddhism.
Episode three
Kunming
The capital and largest city in the province of Yunnan, as well as a major transport hub, Kunming is known as China’s ‘spring city’ thanks to its moderate climate, and is where the contestants’ two routes reconvene.
Himalayas
The third checkpoint for the teams is in the city of Shangri-La, which sits towards the Himalayan foothills. This mountain range is home to the world’s highest peaks, and therefore, some of its most glorious scenery.
Shangri-La
The city sits at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, which is a vast expanse of land sitting at the intersection between central, south and east Asia. Shangri-La itself has stunning mountainous backdrops and is home to the Songzanlin Monastery and nearby China’s famous Tiger Leaping Gorge. Teams will need to prepare themselves for altitude sickness with this one, as the city is perched at 3,160m above sea level.
Episode four
Kathmandu
From Shangri-La, as the Himalayas aren’t possible to navigate on foot, the four remaining teams are flown to the Nepalese capital to restart the race. Kathmandu has a patchwork of local cultures, a sensory overload of smells and everything from ancient temples and royal complexes (the Durbar Squares) to sprawling streets, stunning gardens (such as the Garden of Dreams) and amazing street food.
River Ganges
India’s longest river meanders over more than 2,600 km, originating from the Gomukh glacier in the Himalayas, through northern India and Bangladesh before emptying into the Bay of Bengal at the Ganges Delta, which is the largest river delta in the world.
Varanasi
It’s one of the world’s oldest living cities, and also is one of India’s holiest cities, and has been the ultimate pilgrimage destination for Hindus because of beliefs about washing away sins in the Ganges’ sacred waters, and reaching salvation if their lives end here. For the four teams, it’s the home of the race’s fourth checkpoint.
We’ll update this page throughout the series, so check back every Thursday. Race Across The World is a nine-part series, and airs on BBC One every Wednesday night at 9pm.
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