The first Genghis Khan MTB Adventure took place in 2007, with the Grassland Marathon having its inaugural edition one year later in 2008. Since then, the unique Inner Mongolian grassland event in Xiwuqi has quickly established itself as a popular annual tradition for bikers, runners, adventurists and other alternative culture lovers.
A significant and successful re-design of the competition in 2012 led to record participant numbers and higher media coverage, particularly for the Grassland Marathon. This successful trend accelerated even more in the following years with participation records being broken continuously. The event was used to getting sold out weeks before. The 11th anniversary edition of the Genghis Khan Festival took place between 9 and 11 August 2019, with the running competion traditionally in the morning of the second day (10 August).
After the covid crisis and a four-year-break, the event returned in 2023 with a new design due to changing conditions and priorities in and around Xiwuqi. The King of the Grasslands (KOG) challenge took centre stage, and consisted of a 50km ultra run, a 30km individual time trial cycling on the new tourist highway ‘Route 99’ and a 120km mass start road cycling race labeled as Cyclo Xiwuqi.
In 2024, the event became a 3-day festival once more, in which the KOG Challenge got extended by a sprint duathlon on Friday. The 50km run was reformatted to a proper road marathon: the Xiwuqi Route 99 Marathon. Cyclists were offered two mass-start races, Cyclo Xiwuqi 125km on Sunday, and Speedy Xiwuqi on Saturday afternoon. Mountainbikers could enjoy a 79km MTB or short 20km race.
The 2025 edition is scheduled to mirror last year’s event programme.
Participants and companies interested in sponsoring are recommended to register and/or approach us as soon as possible via registration@nordicways.com or fan.kesi@nordicways.com .
