The 2012 Beijing – Moscow Rally came to an end at the Red Square

The 2012 “Beijing – Moscow” rally, which is dedicated to the year of Russian tourism in China, came to a triumphant end at the Red Square last Saturday. Its participants overcame more than 10 000 kilometres over 29 days. The event was organised by the non-profit partnership “World without borders” with support from the Federal Agency of Tourism of the Russian Federation and the State Administration of Tourism of the People’s Republic of China.

We’d like to remind you that the Beijing – Moscow auto rally started on the 5th of June in Beijing. Its participants included more than 100 journalists from over 20 of Russia’s and China’s leading mass media publications, including the Xinhua news agency and RIA “News” in the face of “RIA Tourism” edition, radio stations “Voice of Russia”, “Mayak”, and the “International Radio of China”, Chanel 10 of the Chinese Central Television, Guangdong Provincial Television, the State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company of Irkutsk, as well as numerous online and printed newspapers. The main goals of the rally became the demonstration of the tourist resources of Russia’s regions, the propaganda and development of automobile tourism and also the support and stimulation of the Russian-Chinese partnership in the sphere of tourism.

Participants of the marathon also became the ambassadors of friendship and good will: at the start of their journey in Beijing, Mr Zhu Shanchzhun, the Deputy Head of the State Administration of Tourism of the PRC presented the head of the auto rally Alexei Liutkevich with an official present to pass on to the Organisational Committee of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The silk mural, which is executed in the traditional Chinese technique, symbolises the years of tourism in Russia and China.

The finish of the rally at the red Square was held in conjunction with the starting events of the International rally-raid “The Silk Way”. And that’s no coincidence. Out of all of the kinds of auto sports, it’s the rally-raid that’s closer in spirit to what the organizers of the “Beijing – Moscow” auto rally are striving to achieve. Furthermore, the idea which the “Silk way” carries within its title, the rally has embodied in its route, covering the major part of the Great Silk Way. The organizers of the rally took part in the symbolical friendship relay – in the festive atmosphere on the Red Square, Alexei Liutkevich, Head of the rally, Deputy Executive Director of the non –profit partnership “World without Borders” handed the symbol of the years of Russian and Chinese tourism to Semion Yakubov, the head of the project “The Silk Way” which will then be delivered to Sochi by the organizers of the rally.  This way, the historical route of the Great Silk Way will be closed.