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Leg 17.10 – “His Dancing is Very Offensive, I Think.”
Teams are almost home! But they’ll have to survive this 10th Leg first! They open their first clue and learn they must fly to Shanghai, China!
Teams must figure out how to get themselves from Bratislava to Vienna Airport from which they will be flying on a direct Austrian Airlines flight, arriving in Shanghai at 6:50am.
Once in Shanghai, teams must take the Shanghai Maglev Train from the airport to People’s Square where they must search for their next clue.
That clue tells teams they must travel by bus to the ancient scenic water town of Xitang in Jiashan County. The next cluebox will be waiting at the bus stop.
Here in Xitang, teams must collect 10 filled rice wine (known as du kang) jars and load them onto a flagged boat in the river. They must then row themselves down the river and find three locations to which they must deliver the correct number of jars to through the roofed corridors of the town. Once they have made all of their deliveries, they will get the next clue.
Teams must now row themselves down the river in a smaller two-person boat and keep their eyes peeled for the next clue.
That clue will lead teams through the narrow corridors of the town to several locations with each clue. They must deliver items to each location to exchange for the next item that must be delivered. Once they deliver their last item, they will get the next clue in return.
Teams must now make their way to Hangzhou and find the Guozhuang Garden at West Lake.
Here, teams will find the Final Yield of the Race!
West Lake has inspired works of poetry and art. For this Detour, teams will need to choose between Perfect Poetry or Scenic Sketch.
In Perfect Poetry, teams will learn a traditional Chinese poem, memorize it and them recite it.
In Scenic Sketch, teams will choose half of a painting and search the area around West Lake for the exact spot depicted in it. Teams must then finish the other half of the painting on their own based on the location of the scene.
After the Detour, teams must make their way to Hangzhou Songcheng, also known as Song Dynasty Town where they must search for their next clue. That clue will reveal the Road Block: Who wants to time travel?
For this Road Block, teams will dress in full costume to learn and perform a routine from The Romance of the Song Dynasty, a type of Shaoxing or Yue opera, with the whole cast. When they get the thumbs up from the director, they will get the next clue.
After the Road Block, teams must make their way to MIXC Mall and find their next clue by the skating rink.
Hangzhou will host the 2022 Asian Games. For this task, teams will put on skates and a two-person dragon costume and do five figure 8s on the ice to receive their next clue.
And that clue reveals the Pit Stop, the Hangzhou Grand Theater.
The first team to find the Mat in the vicinity of the Grand Theater will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+.
The last team to check in here WILL be eliminated.
“Director’s” Commentary
So definitely a great Leg is possible here in this area. I was looking for some areas outside of Shanghai and I saw Xitang which looks like an amazing location.
I think there’s a lot of possible tasks here in the town alone. But for now, we have these two delivery tasks. One reason is to maximize our time in the town and to get teams making their way through the narrow corridors. Having to row down the river should be great fun as well.
Next up is wanting to maximize time at West Lake as well. I think the two Detours should be able to do that. Both simple tasks, but good for some nice 4K UHD shots, yes?
The Road Block is interesting. I was definitely inspired by TAR China 4’s similar task and wanted to have something like that on TARPHDME. So I hope this one is okay.
Last up is the skating in a dragon costume which is just an extra task to help fill out the Leg more.
The Pit Stop at the Hangzhou Grand Theater should look great after dark!
Overall, a pretty good Leg that can be even better with an actual visit to scout!