On March 23, the Ningbo Marathon 2025 fired its gun amidst high expectations.

After ten years, the "Ningbo Marathon" race route has crossed the main urban area for the first time in this year. 20,000 runners started from the city core - Sanjiangkou area, and ran all the way to the Dongqian Lake, the backyard of Ningbo, to experience the glorious history of the starting port of the Maritime Silk Road, overlook the modern city skyline, and taste the unique charm of the integration of ancient and modern times.

This race is an A1 certified event by the Chinese Athletics Association, featuring two events: marathon and half marathon. The race has a capacity of 20,000 participants, including 8,000 for marathon and 12,000 for half marathon. It was hosted by the Sport Bureau of Zhejiang Province and the Ningbo Municipal People's Government, and undertaken by the Ningbo Sports Bureau, the Haishu District People's Government, and so on.

As the starting point of this race, the 3.5km-long Haishu section is a visual feast of urban landmarks. Runners passed through the "top stream" points of Haishu, such as the Drum Tower, the Tianning Temple, the Tianyi Pavilion, the Wangjingmen Ruins Park, the Moon Lake, the Lingqiao Bridge, the Tianyi Square, etc., experiencing the unique charm of the millennium old Luocheng in the interweaving of the history and modernity.

In order to make the race more exciting and diverse, the Haishu District carefully set up 8 atmosphere points along the track, covering almost every kilometer. The dragon dance performance "Twin Dragons Protecting Ningbo" was magnificent; the band sang "Touching Sounds in Ningbo" passionately; the drum rhythm of "Millennium Ancient Rhyme" was resounding; the square dance of "Surging Youth" was full of vitality, and there is also the AI robot "Ningbo Marathon · Machine Engine Support", which cheered runners in a technologically advanced way.

In addition, the Haishu District Youth League Committee has also collaborated with various forces from the government, enterprises, schools, and the society in its jurisdiction to innovate and build a "professional team plus mass matrix" event service system, organizing more than 5,000 leaders to construct a dynamic and scenic line for the event. "Watching the runners speeding past before my eyes, coupled with these wonderful performances, I feel like the whole city is boiling! "Ms. Xu, an audience onsite, cheered loud beside the track, feeling particularly proud, "I hope everyone can fall in love with our city of Ningbo."

It is worth mentioning that in order to better allow runners and citizens to participate and experience the atmosphere of the race together, the "Hot Ningbo" Urban Sports Consumption Season was held at Tianyi Square from March 21 to March 23. Multiple areas were set up on site, including sports clothing exhibition area, sports equipment exhibition area, intelligent technology exhibition area, sports beauty exhibition area, healthy catering exhibition area, etc., to achieve the diversified integration of "sports + consumption + social + entertainment", and supporting consumption vouchers of 1.4 million yuan were issued, which lasted until March 27.

The Haishu District also launched exclusive services and promotional activities for the Ningbo Marathon in the early stage of the race, covering 14 hotels, 6 commercial districts, and 3 recommended tourist routes. In the distributed brochure, the Luocheng sightseeing route, tourist hotels, and time-honored brand cuisine were added to attract participants to enjoy cuisine, stay, shop, and travel in Haishu; some hotels also provided thoughtful services such as free shuttle bus service and delayed check-out for runners.

"Our district uses sports events as a medium to further create a fashionable and distinctive sports gathering area, transforming the 'traffic' of sports events into economic 'increment', helping to establish the brand of sports events, stimulate the enthusiasm of the masses for sports, and create a healthy and vibrant atmosphere for the city," said the relevant person in charge of the Haishu District Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports.

Photo by Photographer Hu Weiji

Photo by Photographer Hu Weiji

Photo by Photographer Hu Weiji

Photo by Photographer Hu Weiji