When the Chinese do something they like to do it in big numbers. I don’t know if this event would make it to the Guinness Book of Records but it is enough to impress me. Yesterday, in Changsha, Hunan Province, two teams, most of whom were students of Hunan University, competed in a tug-of-war match. The event was attended by the Olympic champion, Gong Zhichao, plus a number of celebrities from Hunan TV. The rope was specially made for the event in Jiangsu Province, was 1 km in length, weighed 3 tons and each team had 10,000 members. I don’t know who counted the teams or how they ensured that no extras sneaked on to the rope during the match but, in addition to the umpire watching the lines, there were 27 officials on the ground plus a number of remote control helicopters with cameras watching the proceedings. The outcome was 2 wins to the yellow shirts and one to the reds. The QQ News report of the event is here and the translated version is here; for other reports click here and here.
Filed under: Changsha, China, Hunan, games, sport, trivia | Tagged: Hunan University, students, tug-of-war
