The Amazing Race Philippines: DryedMangoez Edition 10 – Leg 1 – China


IntroductionLeg 1Leg 2Leg 3Leg 4Leg 5Leg 6Leg 7Leg 7BLeg 8Leg 9Leg 10Leg 11Leg 11B


Leg 10.01 – “I don’t like other people putting things in my body.”

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Today is the start of the milestone 10th season of The Amazing Race Philippines (DryedMangoez Edition). And to celebrate this once-unimaginable feat, 12! brand new teams of two will get to race around the world for cash and prizes worth over P10 million! Wow!

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The teams’ friends and families as well as hundreds of Amazing Race Philippines fans are here at the Starting Line at Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz in front of the iconic Binondo Church.

And since we are in Manila’s historic Chinatown, it’s only fitting that their first destination… is in China!

Teams run to the clues on top of their backpacks, provided with promotional consideration by Rexona. They find out they will be flying to the city of Chengdu (via Guangzhou)!

All teams will be on the same Philippine Airlines flight from Manila to Guangzhou, but there are three different connecting flights onward to Chengdu: China Southern arriving at 9:55am, Shenzhen Airlines arriving at 10:20am and Air China Limited arriving at 10:55am. There is room for only four teams on each flight.

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To secure the best tickets, teams must hop into a taxi and make their way to the Philippine Airlines ticketing office at Manila International Airport, Terminal 2.

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Once in Chengdu, teams must “Find the largest building in the world.” That building is the New Century Global Center, the world’s largest building by floor area. And here is where teams will encounter the very first Road Block of the Race: Who is good at chores?

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For this Road Block, teams will rappel down the roof of this world’s largest building and clean two marked window panes to receive their next clue.

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That clue points teams to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

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Here, teams must search the bamboo forest for a bundle of already cut bamboo. They will bring the bundle back to the panda enclosure and use the bamboo to build a platform for young pandas to play on. Once their platform has been approved by the baby pandas, they will receive their next clue.

That clue reveals the Detour: Performance Art of Visual Art.

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In Performance Art, teams must head to Shu Feng Ya Yun where they will watch Bian Lian, the famous face changing shows. Teams must watch the performance and memorize the masks worn by the performers. They will then present the masks in the order they appeared on stage to receive their next clue.

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In Visual Art, teams must head to People’s Park where they will use water calligraphy to rewrite a famous poem on the ground. If they have correctly reproduced the poem and have gotten a local to read it, they will receive their next clue.

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Teams must now search People’s Park for flagged tables where they will be treated to a traditional and popular service here: ear cleaning!

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Once their ears are cleaned and ready for the Race, they can look for the Pit Stop somewhere near the Anshun Bridge.

The first team to check-in here will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+.

The last team to check-in here WILL be eliminated.

“Director’s” Commentary

Happy 10th Anniversary!

This is a pretty solid and full first Leg I think. For a milestone season, you’ve got to make everything a little special and harder.

First, I really enjoyed TARPHDM2’s public start. One purpose of a big public start is to hype the show and get regular people excited. Another, more dramatic purpose, is to have scenes of teams saying goodbye to their loved ones who will be cheering them on as they start the Race. That’s why it’ll be important to cast certain types of teams that will surely produce emotional moments.

For example, a pair of siblings from a lower-middle class family. They were raised by their elderly grandparents who are here today with the siblings’ younger brother/sister. Everyone attending the Starting Line today must stand. But Grandma has been given a monobloc chair for her to sit on because her knees aren’t the strongest. As soon as Derek (or any other TARPH host… maybe me lol) says “Go!”, the teams run over to their bags and open their first clue. The teams then go their separate ways. The siblings, meanwhile, run over to their family members. They give their grandparents a hug and a kiss and the grandmother tearfully wishes them luck, but more importantly, prays they will stay safe on their travels.

This scene of course will be replayed at the Finish Line when the siblings end up winning the entire Race!

Hehe. I’m tearing up already. What a powerful moment. This is the kind of Emmy-worthy directing you hope to see on TARPH, yes? Hee.

So I have China for this opening Leg and I made sure to choose a city not yet visited on a non-Chinese TAR season. I was pretty intent on having China be an opening Leg because of a certain upcoming task. SPOILER ALERT! Leg 2 is also in China!

The 2nd Leg was originally supposed to be the opening Leg because of a certain specific task I am very excited about. But logistically, Chengdu being the first Leg was much simpler. I also wanted to have first Leg airport drama, but you can’t enter Manila airports without tickets. So the Philippine Airlines ticket office at Terminal 2 is the next best thing.

Looking at Chengdu, I read about the New Century Global Center. The Road Block is a typical rappelling task and opening Legs usually have some kind of extreme task like this.

The pandas are a must in Chengdu. I think there might be other possible tasks here, but I wouldn’t know as I’ve never been there and haven’t actually scouted the location myself. You know? lol

The Detour should be good. Both tasks will be challenging. The masks side of Detour is similar to I think a task from TAR17 (I remember Gary & Mallory doing it, so maybe TAR18 too). They will need to memorize quickly moving parts on a stage. The calligraphy side of the Detour also has many similar tasks in the past. But the water calligraphy was very interesting and specific to Chengdu, so it should be good as well.

My hope is that the calligraphy side of the Detour will be more difficult, especially since they have to write several lines of a poem and then find someone to read it out loud. Since the ear cleaning (another Chengdu feature) is also in People’s Park, this calligraphy needs to be harder than the masks.

And finally the Pit Stop, the bridge should look great in the evening. And teams will need to search the area around it instead of being told specifically where the Mat is. (Really, it’s because I have no idea of any exact locations near the bridge. Again, I’m not actually scouting these places! lolol)

But overall, this should be a great opening Leg. Very exciting with lots to do.

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