The third"Fareast Cup" International Sailing Rally, which is a traditional sailing event featuring Qingdao's self-owned brand image, will be launched at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center on September1,2018. Compared with the previous two rallies, the biggest highlight of this year’s"Fareast Cup" is that we will take advantage of both the Qingdao summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the year of the Sino-Russian regional cooperation and exchanges, to open up new routes for the Leisure and Sports Development Belt of21st Century Maritime Silk Road between Qingdao and Vladivostok, Russia. The course races and awards ceremony which are held in Vladivostok are expected to be included in the4th Russian Oriental Economic Forum of2018. Approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Oriental Economic Forum was established in2015. It is held annually in Vladivostok, Russia, and has been successfully held for three times. This forum is committed to promoting economic development in the Russian Far East area and providing a platform for cooperation and development in the Asia-Pacific region. Vladivostok is Russia’s"Sailing Capital" and Qingdao is China’s, which can strengthen sports and cultural exchanges between China and Russia, Qingdao and Vladivostok.

Deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Russia is a plan made by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who uphold a flexible and long-term perspective. China and Russia support each other and make efforts to link the Silk Road Economic Belt with the Eurasian Economic Union. Cooperation will be strengthened through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms, especially the SCO platform. Also, connectivity in such areas as logistics and transportation infrastructure will be improved. Qingdao is an important node and fulcrum city of the“Belt and Road” Initiative and sailing is the characteristic of Qingdao. As the host city of the sailing competition of2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Qingdao nurtured China’s modern sailing industry. After the Olympic Sailing Game, Qingdao comprehensively deepened the comprehensive advantages of the city’s brand image of"Sailing Capital", focused on the Leisure and Sports Development Belt of21st Century Maritime Silk Road with the sailing industry as a carrier. It strengthened the connectivity of marine leisure sports among countries and regions along the"Belt and Road". President Xi Jinping pointed out at the Qingdao Summit in June this year that Qingdao is the famous"Sailboat Capital" worldwide. Many ships sail from here to pursue their dreams.

Russia is an important partner of China in promoting the“Belt and Road” global initiative. In recent years, Qingdao has conducted cooperation and exchanges on sailing with many regions of Russia, which has effectively promoted sports cooperation and cultural exchanges between these two countries. In2015, during the70th anniversary that the two countries commemorate China's anti-Japanese war and the world's anti-fascism war, Guo Chuan, the first Chinese finished the single unpowered sailboat global voyage, led four top sailing athletes from Russia, France, Britain and Norway to drive the" Qingdao·China" super three-body sailboat. The sailors started from the heroic city of the Great Patriotic War, Murmansk, which set up the record and was the first time in human history that people had driven unpowered sailboat along the Arctic Ocean northeast route, with no interruption and no replenishment. Since2015, the carrack"Pallada" of Russian Far Eastern State Technical Fisheries University has been visited Qingdao during Qingdao International Sailing Week and Qingdao Marine Festival for three consecutive years. It has become an important platform for Qingdao citizens to experience the Russian maritime culture and enhance cultural exchanges between the two countries. The“Pallada” will visit again during the2018 Sailing Week · Ocean Festival.

As the largest long-distance regatta in the Far East, the“Fareast Cup”21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Sailing Rally, founded in2016, aims to strengthen the sports and culture communications with countries along the21st Century Maritime Silk Road in Northeast Asia through the sailing games. It also facilitates contacts among every state in Northeast Asian, and fills the void in the long-distance sailing rally of countries covering China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. This international sailing event is the only one domestically and the leading one in Asia. The event was hosted by the Chinese Yachting Association and Qingdao Major International Sailing Events (Festivals) Organizing Committee. It was also undertaken by Qingdao Sports Bureau, Qingdao Olympic Sailing Urban Development Promotion Association, Qingdao Sailing and Windsurfing (Boat) Sports Association, Qingdao Tourism Group and Qingdao Sailing Management Center. Besides, the event was also co-sponsored by Qingdao Silk Road Navigation Event Management Co., Ltd., Russian Seven Feet Club and South Korean Gyeonggi Sail Association.

The"Fareast Cup" is a sailing event featuring Qingdao's self-owned brand image, which has been successfully held twice and is an internationally recognized and unparalleled offshore sailing competition in the industry. The first"Fareast Cup" in2016 adopted the Beneteau F40 keel-type regatta. The route is Qingdao, China--Mokpo, South Korea--Qingdao, China. There are6 teams participating in the event, which are Russian Seven Feet, South Korean Sehan University, Australia team, French Beneteau, Tsinghua University and Qingdao Sailing Association. The launch of the first"Fareast Cup" has generated the enthusiastic response in the international maritime community. The second"Fareast Cup" of2017 expanded from six teams to eight, including more than60 athletes from China, Russia, France and South Korea. In2017, Qingdao the Sailing Capital‘s team“Youth Civilization” participated in competition representing Qingdao, carrying out Northeast Asia maritime leisure sports and culture exchanges and promoting the brand image of"Sailing Capital".

After two successful events during past years, the international publicity and reputation of"Fareast Cup" have been continuously improved. In June2018, the SCO Summit was held in Qingdao.2018 and2019 are two years of Sino-Russian regional cooperation and exchange.

This provides a strategic opportunity for Qingdao to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Russia in the fields of sailing, tourism and culture exchanges by taking sailing as a carrier, as well as increase new achievements to the years of Sino-Russian regional cooperation and exchange. In April this year, the Sino-Russian Regional Cooperation Park (Qingdao) was officially launched in The West Coast New Area of Qingdao, which is the first Sino-Russian regional cooperation park established in the years of Sino-Russian regional cooperation and exchange. It will create an international demonstration platform for China-Russia regional economic and trade cooperation and culture exchanges. In July this year, the third SCO Youth Campus was held in Qingdao to implement the youth exchange brand project initiated by President Xi Jinping and enhance mutual trust and communications among youngsters from the SCO countries. Taking the opportunity of this youth campus, the naming ceremony of the sailboat"Shanghai Cooperation Organization Youth" was held. After the ceremony, all the members joined in the additional sailing activities. The youth representatives from eleven SCO member states and observer countries put out to sea together with more than200 Chinese youth representatives, lifting sail of youth and facilitating the development of the SCO.

The third“Fareast Cup" in2018 will open a new competition mode for the Sino-Russian long-distance sailing rally. The six teams participating in the"Fareast Cup" include the defending champion Seven Feet and the Decision from Russia, which there will totally be31 Russian crew members to join in the event, covering3 whole-course and28 half-way crew members. The competition will be held in strict accordance with the standards of the International Sailing Federation’s category2 offshore races. It will attract6 teams from such7 countries as China, Russia, South Korea, Australia, France, New Zealand and Japan. They are China’s Tsinghua University, China’s SCO Youth, China’s Qingdao, Russia’s Seven Feet, Russia’s Decision and South Korea’s Gyeonggi, who will drive the40-foot-long Beneteau First40 sailboats to brave winds and waves, as well as race to the top in the vast sea. Relying on Qingdao's first youth foreign affairs exchange base and showcasing the youth’s style of innovation and entrepreneurship of the"Sailing Capital" since the18th National Congress, the International Promotion Youth Pioneer Team in Qingdao the Sailing Capital will conduct youth international exchange in Northeast Asia and promote the"sailing capital" city image of Qingdao. As one of the highest level offshore sailing events in China, Weidong Cloud Education, Langyatai Liquor Group, Qingdao No.2 Middle School, Huaji Weitong Company, YouBed and so on have become official sponsors of the event, with a total title sponsor still in place.

Competition Schedule: From August29th, the participating teams will arrive in Qingdao to register for the pre-race sprint preparation. The opening ceremony of the"Fareast Cup" will be held on August31, and these six teams will officially embark on a long journey to Vladivostok on September1st. It is said that the voyage between Qingdao and Vladivostok is more than1,000 nautical miles, and it will take about a week for the teams to reach the most important Russian city in the Far East. These six teams will compete in Vladivostok, and a host of Russian local boats, including eight similar to the“Pallada”, will also be added. On September14th, the six contestants will be refreshed in Vladivostok and return to Qingdao. The“Fareast Cup” will shorten its sail and be closed on September24th, after all six arrived here in triumph.

Due to the participation of the world's top maritime sailors, this year’s"Fareast Cup" is bound to be highly competitive and exciting. The team of Tsinghua University is regarded as one of the favorites to win the championship. The team is constituted of former East Wind captain Charles, who just won the2017-2018 Volvo Ocean Race, his favorite Qingdao young boy and honorary captain of China SCO's Youth Liu Xue and so on. Its strong squad has become one of the highlights of the competition. In addition, Mikhail, the captain of Russia's Seven Feet, is currently the Vice President of the Russian Sailing Association, and his capable assistants are his two sons. A tiger father will not beget a dog son. Mikhail's elder son was a49-level contestant in the Russian National Sailing Team, and his younger son once won the Championship of Peterson25 in Russian Sailing Tournament. As the defending champion of the“Fareast Cup”, Russia’s Seven Feet is also prepared to defend the title of the championship.

According to Gao Jun, the event’s founder, the“Fareast Cup” will release the class of competition in the future, and welcome more types of boat to compete in the same water field."For example, this time we went to Vladivostok. We would discuss with relevant international organizations about high mast sailboats to be sailed in the‘Fareast Cup’ in the near future. On the basis of the plan, since2020, more than10 high mast sailboats will appear in the‘Fareast Cup’ every two or three years. Additionally, single and double sailboats will also be added to the competition.