Like mentioned earlier, this rule wouldn't have any negative effect on what anyone on this board would be trying to accomplish in the Takl Rally and actually makes it better.

But just because it doesn't suit our purposes or needs doesn't mean it's good for everyone on the planet and someone may surly care if they want to. I'd personally be happy just to finish the race and no one here is a serious enduro racer so it's not about the winning. Consider the potential of the race beyond our immediate scope of interests for a minute guys.

XinJiang and Qinghai have enough bad roads an damazing scenery to be a strong contender against the highly debated cancellation of the Dakar Rally. Both of them have tremendously huge desert areas and the Taklamakan is the world's second largest sandy desert next to the Sahara.

Since we've lived in China, we're already used to these kinds of exclusive policies. Nevertheless rules like that don't exactly promote international competition and will:

1) Limit the exposure/respect China's racing receives in the rest of the world and...
2) Limit the exposure China's own racers have to meet and gauge themselves against current international racing standards

The point is closing doors doesn't really end up working in the long run. If the rally is just for fun, then why not call it "The Taklamakan Fun Rally".

Don't mistake this for complaining either. If a foreigner wants to really race in China, there's always the "Transorientale" which starts June 12 and runs form St.Petersburg to Beijing but it's organized by a dude from France and is not a purely China hosted race.

The Transoriental, by the way, has different categories of competition ranging from "Marathon Rally" (serious) to "Discovery" (casual) which at least sounds more friendly than "foreigner" and "Chinese citizen=official participant". It's all about presentation.

It would be good to hear some first person experience from the foreigner dude who entered this years Takl Rally. Does he have a blog or thread of his experiences anywhere? Hmmm...

CC