On March 14, the Information Office of Qingdao Municipal Government held a news briefing to introduce the Qingdao leg of 2023-24 Clipper Round-the-World Yacht Race. As an auspicious start of yachting races to be held in Qingdao in 2024, the event has been staged in the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center from March 21 to 27. The Clipper Round The World Yacht Race will choose Qingdao as a stopover city for a ninth time after a lapse of six years.

To celebrate the return of “Qingdao” to its home port, and stage an “one-stop” event of marine culture and sports that integrate sports, competition, culture, commerce and trade, and exchanges, three ceremonies and eight recreational and sports activities will be held in the leg of the race with an aim of making Qingdao increasingly famous as a “Sailing City” in China.

The 2023-24 Clipper Round The World Yacht Race was kicked off in Portsmouth, UK on local time September 3, 2023. The event has drawn the participation of 11 fleets composed of more than 700 crews from 55 countries and regions and is expected to last 11 months. With 14 stopover ports, fleets will visit as scheduled eight countries and regions on six continents and need to finish a total voyage of 40,000 sea miles (including 8 legs and 14 courses). The 6th leg of the race is underway now. “Qingdao” has won the championship in one course. Based on the current sailing orbit, fleets are expected to start arriving at Qingdao one after another on March 21 and to head for Seattle in the USA on March 27.

This year marks the third time for “Qingdao, China’s Sailing City” to sponsor the Qingdao Leg of Clipper Round The World Yacht Race. The carrack “Qingdao” continues to work as a mobile platform for publicity to showcase to the entire world a charming Qingdao as an energetic and livable coastal city. Since the start of the 2013-14 season, Clipper Round The World have been using 70 feet sailing boats made in Qingdao. These boats have sailed nearly 160,000 sea miles, equivalent to the distance of four round-the-world voyages, and withstood extreme weather conditions in the voyages. Therefore, “Made in Qingdao” is now synonymous with reliability.

Clipper Round The World is the world’s largest circumnavigation event and Qingdao is the first Asian city to hold the event. Over the two decades of partnership with Clipper Round The World, Qingdao has scored nine “No. 1” records in succession. Qingdao is the first Chinese city to participate in the event and the sole 10-time stopover city in the world. Guo Chuan, a Qingdao-born sailor, is the first Chinese to attend Clipper Round the World. Song Kun, a female athlete from Qingdao, is the first Chinese to complete the entire voyage of Clipper Round The Event as well as the first Chinese female to navigate around the world. Clipper Round The World is the first international rally race Qingdao has attended, and the international event in which the largest number of Qingdao-born sailors engage. Qingdao is the first stopover city for Clipper Round The World to launch themed cultural activities. The organizing committee in the UK has therefore rated Qingdao as the most special stopover city. Despite delays, the 2019-20 season was launched, in which “Qingdao” took the crown, the best performance since it started to attend the event in 2006. Qingdao known as China’s “Sailing City” has therefore attracted wide attention in the international navigation circle.  (Xu Nuo)

 In the 2023-24 Clipper Round The World Yacht Race, the carrack “Qingdao” is sailing.