Walk Stars! Join the Ritan Park Mao-a-Thon

Be a ‘Walk Star’! Go the extra mile for a good cause and join the Ritan Park Mao-a-thon on November 26 to raise money for Maovember, the annual Beijing-born event that donates 100 percent of its fundraising total to local charities.

The idea is simple. Participants will gather at Ritan Park and walk 5 laps, 10 laps, 20 laps or—the ultimate—50 laps. Go solo or enter as a relay team, with each participant footing part of the load.

Each 1.5 km lap raises money for Maovember’s 2022 designated charity, The Library Project, which funds reading rooms and more in rural schools.

Here are the key details for the Ritan Park Mao-a-thon, organized by the Metro Beijing branch of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO).

What time does it start?

Any time you’d like! For an average brisk walker, each 1.5 km lap will take 15 to 20 minutes to complete. That means 10 laps (15 km) will take from 2.5 hours up to–for slower walkers–5 hours. If you start at 9 AM, you can finish at lunch time. If you start at 2 PM, you can finish late afternoon.

Those doing more laps can pick the time that best suits them. Some planning to go for 50 laps (75 km) will put their shoes on the ground when Ritan Park opens at 6 AM.

How are the laps counted?

Every time you complete a lap, you’ll take a selfie with your lap number. There will also be a rest station stocked with water, snacks, a place to store your bag… and of course plenty of encouragement. Jia you!

How do I raise money?

Each Walk Star asks friends, co-workers and acquaintances to be their sponsors. For example, if a friend sponsors you RMB10 per lap, and you walk ten laps, you collect RM100 from your friend.

In short, each walker finds sponsors, does a bunch of laps, collects the sponsors’ money and donates it directly to Library Project. We suggest each walker try to raise a minimum of RMB1000.

How do I donate the money?

Once you collect the sponsor money, send it directly to The Library Project using our dedicated QR code below. After the money is transferred, you will see your name and donation listed. You will also receive a certificate showing your donation total and the number of years of reading it funds.

Why else should you join?

Aside from the warm fuzzy feeling of helping a good cause–and getting a good workout!–there will also be medals for the Walk Stars at the end, free foot massage vouchers for the first 30 people who raise over RMB1000, and an afterparty where the first beer is on us.

I’m in! How do I participate?

Join our Ritan Mao-a-thon WeChat Group here:

It’s as easy as a stroll in the park. You can get further details and ask questions about the Ritan Park Mao-a-thon in the group.

Oh no, I’m out of town or busy that day, but I would like to help the Library Project!

No problem, you can still donate to Maovember and The Library Project and help us fund reading rooms across China by using the our dedicated QR code. Check out the projects we funded in 2021 and funded in 2020.

This is the third Maovember event involving Ritan Park. In 2017, Mike Wester of The Beijinger walked 900 km during November, including 75 km (50 laps) in one day in Ritan Park.

And in 2019, a group of walkers and runners completed up to 28 laps (42 km) each in Ritan Park to raise money for Maovember.

Learn more about EO here and about Maovember here.

Paws for a Cause | Sixth Annual Dog Pub Crawl

The sixth annual Dog Pub Crawl kicked off the tenth annual Maovember campaign. This year’s “Paws for a cause” visited four venues on October 29, including Peach by Hulu, Paddy O’Shea’s, Jing-A and Pi Bar, with the dogs–most in Halloween costumes–fueled by snacks from Penny’s and the humans enjoying a drink at each stop. The day also included lucky draws with prizes from Peach, Paddy O’Shea’s and Jing-A as well as a “virtual dog crawl” for those pups who could not make it.

The dogs gathered at Peach Sanlitun, where the humans enjoyed mulled wine or sodas and the dogs got their snacks from Penny’s. Peach also gave everyone a gift certificate for the restaurant as well as one for new sibling restaurant Fork, which is set to open. This is the second year Dog Pub Crawl started at Peach.

The tour then headed to Paddy O’Shea’s for Tsingtao, sodas and coffees. Paddy’s mascot / pup Frankie was there to greet his fellow canines. This is one of many Maovember events hosted by Paddy O’Shea’s over the years, including some raucous closing parties.

Stop number three was a veteran on the Dog Pub Crawl circuit: Jing-A. The dogs enjoyed water at their dedicated “open bar” while humans enjoyed craft beer. We also held our lucky draw here, with beer, key chains, glasses and t-shirts from Jing-A and beanies, coolers, hot water bottles and gift certificates from Paddy O’Shea’s.

Our final stop for a third straight year was Pi Bar, where owners Young and Vico welcomed the dogs and we enjoyed a choice of four kinds of wine. The dogs chilled out in the relaxed airy vibe of Pi before it was time to go home for a good long sleep!

Thanks to all who supported us, including Peach, Paddy’s, Jing-A, Pi Bar and Penny’s, and the trio of dogs who joined virtually–Naughty, Darla and Olive–courtesy of donations from owners Young and Meredith.

This year’s DPC raised 28,470 mao (元2,847). Adding in 32,880 mao (元3,288) of donations from all about China, including from Corinna, Sarah, Don, John, Zekun and Dustin, and 8,100 mao (元810) from a wine tasting supported by Wine to Asia and Hulu by TRB, and the opening weekend of Maovember 10 totaled 69,200 mao (元6,910).

Maovember 2021 Recap!

Each Maovember is unique and the 2021 campaign, which raised 94,772 rmb or 947,720 mao, is no different. While we faced uncertainty due to the COVID crisis, this year saw the highest revenues per event since Maovember started. On top of that, Maovember stayed true to its philosophy of holding fun quirky events, including (click links for details and more photos):

Annual WE Brewery Corn Toss Tourney

Dog Pub Crawl at Peach, Great Leap, Jing-A & Pi Bar

Mystery Wine Party at CHEERS 32

Corn Toss, Flip Cup & Open Mic with Beijing International Ice Hockey

Maovember Photo Auction at O’Steak

Inaugural BufPong Tourney at Great Leap

Marselan Beer & Wine Party at Jing-A

As per tradition, Maovember donates every single mao it raises, with any admin costs covered by our volunteers. This year’s funds went to The Library Project. Of the money raised, rmb 89,522 was donated via our unique QR code with Library Project (donors can use the QR code in the poster here to see their submission) while rmb5200 was donated directly via The Library Project’s main account.

Many thanks to everyone who made Maovember 2021 possible and I encourage people to check out the event links to see just how much fun we had while raising money for a good cause!

Recap | Jing-A hosts Marselan beer & wine party

Jing-A Brewing hosted a boozy one-of-a-kind party on November 28, featuring beers and wines made with Marselan, which some people call “China’s grape.”

Attendees enjoyed two Marselan beers made in 2020 with grapes from Grace Vineyard in Shanxi, then aged one year in Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvigon barrels, as well as a barrel-aged Farmhouse Ale. This event was a follow-up to last year’s Maovember Marselan party at Jing-A.

They also tasted a lineup of Marselan wines donated by Grace 怡园酒庄, Martin 马丁酒庄 from Hebei, Man Zhou Xiang 满酌香 from Shandong, and Stone & Moon 望月石酒庄, Xiao Pu 小圃, Mountain Wave 海悦仁和酒庄, Charme 夏木酒庄 and Lansai 蓝赛酒庄 from Ningxia.

The event raised rm6558 in attendance fees, with Tom Hsu, director of VIA Faith Hope Love Public Welfare Foundation and executive director of Domaine Franco-Chinois in Huailai County, the first winery in China to plant Marselan grapes, supporting with a rmb5000 donation. That brought the event donation total to rmb11,558 or 115,580 mao. Those who missed the event can get the Marselan beers by bottle at Jing-A and the wines from the respective wineries.

Recap | Great Leap hosts 16-team Bufpong tourney

Beer Pong became Buf Pong with a raucous sixteen-team tournament at Great Leap #12 in Beijing on November 28.

Teams paid rmb500 each and were divided by lottery into four divisions of four teams, where they played round robin, with the top ping pong ball tossing team from each heading to the semi-finals and, for the winners there, to the finals. This year’s champs, the Pretentious Philanthropists, won the weight of one player in Buf2, a total of 11 cases of 24 cans of BuF2 each!

Players also enjoyed free-flow Buf2, in three flavors, throughout the event. And many played the bean bag toss to win tickets in a raffle that includes prizes from Buf2, Great Leap, Peach, Arch and more.

By the time the last ball was thrown, Bufpong had raised rmb15,046 or 150,460 mao, including rmb11,251 in team fees (and additional donations), rmb2295 in raffle ticket sales and rmb1500 in bidding to shave the Maovember mustache of chief organizer Dill. Check out the pics below!

Recap | Photo auction meets wine tasting at O’Steak’s MaovembArt

Maovember is all about fun new events and that was certainly the case on November 24 as restaurant O’Steak hosted a photograph auction and wine tasting aka MaovembArt.

The auction featured ten photos–eight from Beijing, two from Shanghai–taken by Francois Nadeau. All profits from the auction, which saw plenty of bidding, went to Maovember.

Guests also enjoyed flights of three glasses of wine—as Nadeau is a French-Canadian in China, we picked a French, a Canadian and a Chinese label—at rmb120, which also went to Maovember.

The wine trio included Mt. Boucherie Merlot from Canada (English / 中文介绍) as well as Pierre-Marie Chermette Beaujolais from France and Xi Estates Jade Dove Red Blend from China.

This night of art and wine, not mention tasty French food and plenty of conversation, ended up raising rmb13,240 or 132,400 mao.

Recap | Beijing International Ice Hockey tops 200,000 mao

Beijing International Ice Hockey filled the net for Maovember this year by raising over 200,000 mao, highlighted by a day-long party at The Irish Volunteer on November 20.

The party started with a corn toss tournament–Curt ‘n’ Clarky again took top spot–while attendees enjoyed beers and barbecue. Next up was flip cup, held on the patio out front, with some fast and furious action. And then it was time to get musical, as numerous BIIH members got up to sing, rap and play instruments during an open mic session that saw the entire room frequently singing along.

There was also a silent auction with an eclectic range of items–from art to Vitamix machines to hockey memorabilia to a guitar amp–and that raised a substantial amount of the money. The auction item donors included Steve Northcott, WPIC and Opposite House Hotel.

All in all, it was a fine day–and night–that captured the spirit of Maovember, namely, having fun and raising funds for a good cause. And with some further fundraising post-party, BIIH donated a whopping rmb22,038 / 220,380 mao to Maovember.

Recap | CHEERS uncorks Mystery Wine Party 2021

Mystery Wine Party returned this year and raised over 90,000 mao through bottle and raffle ticket sales at CHEERS Sanyuanqiao on November 13.

Mystery Wine featured over 50 wines, from a dozen countries, wrapped to cover the labels. Guests paid rmb125 to choose a bottle, unwrap it and discover the “mystery.” They could only buy a second bottle when the first was done, which encouraged people to share with friends, trade pours with strangers and, in turn, discover even more wines.

This year’s party also featured a bean bag toss game–successful throws earned tickets in a draw for thousands of renminbi worth of prizes.

The party raised rmb7250 in bottle sales, rmb1225 in raffle ticket sales and rmb751 in donations, for a grand total of rmb9226 or 92,260 mao for charity.

And in addition to hosting, CHEERS also donated wines as did the following sponsors: