Swedish bicycle race comes to China

The Swedish recreational bicycle ride known as Vatternrundan is coming to China this week.

The Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture in Jilin province will hold the first Vatternrundan China International Cycling Tourism Festival from Thursday to Sunday.

Vatternrundan, started in 1966, is a non-competitive event consisting of a 300 km course that circles Lake Vattern in Sweden. The number of participants increased from 334 cyclists in its inaugural edition to around 35,000 in 2012.

The Chinese edition will be held in Yanbian from 2012-16. This year, more than 600 amateur cyclists from 18 countries are expected to tour Yanji, Longjing and Helong, as well as Antu county in Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture.

"This is the first time Yanbian has hosted a large international sports event," Su Qingliang, deputy secretary general of the Yanbian government, said at a news conference held at the Embassy of Sweden in Beijing on Monday.

"Yanbian stood out because it's on the border of China, Russia and North Korea. And it is also distinguished with its beautiful scenery. The 84.4 percent forest coverage is very close to the environment in Europe."

The Vatternrundan is the second Swedish sports festival to come to Jilin province. The Vasaloppet ski race has been held at Jingyuetan National Forest Park in the capital city of Changchun since 2003. It attracted more than 23,000 skiers from around the world earlier this year.

The Vatternrundan will likely be another success in the northeast province.

"I'm certain this will be a success here in China - the most important thing for us is to organize a safe race for the cyclists and those surrounding the race," said Michael Thoren, chairman of the board of Vatternrundan Sweden. "We are looking forward to cooperating with Yanbian to make it the biggest cycling race in China and probably in the future the biggest race in the world. So this will be a very important weekend for us."

Jakob Kiefer, minister counselor at the Embassy of Sweden said he is confident in China's potential.

"China is a country of bicycles. Perhaps not as many bicycles as it used to be 30 years ago, but surely China is a country with fantastic abilities and possibilities to use bikes," he said.

Gavert Waag, managing director of the organizing company Nordic Ways, said the company is talking to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to bring the race across the border in 2013.

"Vatternrundan will start in Yanji at the end of September next year. We will go through the border in Hunchun city and have the finish line of the 200km course in the Rason Special Economic Zone in (the DPRK) - it means more than 50 km of the race will be held in (the DPRK)," Waag said. "This will be a historic event and there will be more than 1,000 cyclists next year."