Thanks to the SCP Gran Fondo

All sponsors get a message of thanks, a way to express gratitude for their support and a means to explain what their ad is about. Coinciding with the start of the Chinese New Year, February’s sponsor is the SCP Grand Fondo in China, an event that’s open to all and wants to welcome foreign entrants.

Held in April it’s the first amateur event in China to promote itself abroad. It’s in Huangshan in Eastern China. Huangshan means “yellow mountain” and the mountain range is a popular tourist destination. Yi County where the ride takes place is where many scenes from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon where filmed.

There’s an English website for those wanting to learn more about the ride: http://scpgranfondo.shrace.net/en/

You can register to ride now too. As much as I’d like every reader to ride, of course many won’t but in advertising here the event can increase its notoriety abroad. If you don’t go this year, here’s a word to add to your Chinese vocabulary:

格兰枫度

That’s “gelanfeng du”, a similar sound to gran fondo. It’s interesting to see the Chinese adopt this phrase just as English speakers also use gran fondo and cyclosportive to describe their rides rather than say “long distance” or “cycle sport”.

Once again thanks to the SCP Gran Fondo

8 thoughts on “Thanks to the SCP Gran Fondo”

  1. I don’t think 格兰枫度’s the official translation of the words if there ever was one. But it’s actually a quite good translation that is conjured up by the organiser.

    The area is fabulous and the route is around a major tourist attraction (the Yellow Mountain, 黄山). So one can expect some descent hotels around though they are not necessarily cyclist friendly. Definitely would give it a go next year if schedule works out.

      • The ideograms presumably mean something as well as being a homophone? Google translate suggests they say “grand maple degree” but no idea if that’s right or intentional.

        • Google certainly did a good job for the literal translation. The area’s not know for maple leaves though.

          It’s certainly more a homophone than translation. My mistake, in China we don’t distinguish between the two. However, this homophone is more inline with how Coca-cola is translated into “可口可乐” in Chinese. “可口可乐” is a homophone, but translates literally as “delicious & makes you happy”.

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