Ladies and gentlemen, place your guesses—and win your weight in wine! Starting Friday at 2 PM, ‘Mao-a-thon’ Mike Wester will try to walk to as many of the ~30 CHEERS Wine shops in Beijing—found from Shuangjing to Wangjing to Changping—as possible by Sunday evening. It’s part of his 30-day, 900-km “mao-a-thon” so let’s just borrow the Chinese name for grape and call it a putao-a-thon.

In any case, the person who guesses 1) the number of stores Mike visits during his three-day tour and 2) is closest to how many km he walks during this adventure will win his / her weight in wine! (For someone who weighs 60 kg, the prize would be over 40 bottles!)

The contest ends when Mike arrives at CHEERS Shuangjing store on Sunday at 6 PM. Expect bubbly and baozza, those tasty baozi-pizza creations, with all revenue from these snacks to Maovember.

Sound good? To participate, scan the QR Code below to guess how many stores Mike will visit and how many km he will walk doing it. The entry fee is 90 rmb, with 100 percent of the money to Maovember. Can’t decide the number of stores? Then enter twice—or more! Make sure you register the number of stores and km!

And join the celebration at CHEERS, starting at 6 PM on Sunday at the Tianzhijiaozi store (details) in Shuangjing: 3 Dongbo Street / 朝阳区双井东柏街9号院3号楼1层0103底商, on the same strip as The Brick, Lily’s American Diner and Grinders.

Note: This event is part of Mike Wester’s 30-day 900-km mao-a-thon, which has included a walk around the Third Ring Road on November 1 and a 75-km walk in Ritan Park on November 7. As of November 8, he had completed 280 of his 900-km mission.

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See more Maovember events here and how to support Maovember in other ways here.

 

Maovember has moved past Beijing to cities like Shanghai, Taipei and Tianjin in recent years. And now it is moving past humans to involve our four-legged friends!

The first Maovember Dog Pub Crawl will be held November 19. Participants can enjoy a drink at each of the five bars on the route while their dogs indulge in treats from Penny’s, all for just rmb100 (scan this QR code to sign up). I asked Edouard Simon, a member of the Maovember steering group, about the event.

This event is called Dog Pub Crawl? Can we also call it the Pup Crawl? How about the Bar(k) Crawl?

It could have been named the pup crawl, bar(k) crawl or even dog and beer lover crawl. This event is open to both dog owners and dog lovers who want to pet a furry friend while enjoying drinks and supporting local charities!

Beijing is not a very dog friendly place. Most public areas, including parks, forbid our best friends. So this event is a chance for dog lovers to discover new places where they can go with their dogs.

You have five stops for the dog pub crawl. Where are you going?

We will start at Beer Mania, then walk to The Local, XL Bar and Restaurant and Paddy O’Shea’s, before finishing at the new 京A Brewing off Xingfucun Middle Road. We will spend enough time at each venue to enjoy complimentary drinks and feed the babies!

Five stops and five drinks sounds good. What beverages can participant expect?

They can expect some beers as well as hot cider, which should be a good option with the lower temperatures these days.

And the dogs get treats.

We are doing this event with Penny’s, a Beijing brand that provides fresh food for dogs and cats. Their range of treats includes chicken and duck strips, duck flavored sweet potato, and cookies.

What if a dog wants to have a beer instead of a snack?

We love our dogs too much to give them alcohol. But Penny’s does have beer-flavoured chicken strips!

You are also participating in this pub crawl. Who are you taking?

I’ll be with Léo, my two-year-old beagle. What makes him special is that he will go anywhere if there is food. As I’m the same with beer, we could walk as much as Mike Wester in order to get full.

Finally, how can people sign up for this event?

People can sign up by using the QR code above and adding the Maovember official WeChat account.

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The Dog Pub Crawl starts at Beer Mania at 2 PM on November 19. The rmb100 entry fee includes one drink at each of the five stops plus a package of Penny’s treats for your dog. Scan the code above to sign up. See more Maovember events here and how to support Maovember in other ways here.

 

Mike Wester of The Beijinger is ahead of the pace needed to reach his goal of walking 900 kilometers in 30 days as a fundraiser for this year’s Maovember campaign. Buoyed by a 50-km jaunt around Beijing’s Third Ring Road to kick off his mission on Wednesday, November 1, he has put in two more consecutive days of steady walking to easily clear 100 km by the time the clock struck midnight on November 3.

Wester aims to raise rmb60,000 for this year’s charity partners, The Library Project and Bread of Life, and already has more than rmb15,000 in sponsorships. To read his pledge or sponsor him, see this link. And expect more updates here and on the maovember Facebook page.

Holy mao! What a fun launch party! Mike Wester arrived at XL after a 50-km walk to kick off to launch his 90-km “mao-a-thon” mission—then mowed down a birthday cake, Brendan Davis did a podcast on the spot. We had super-sized Maovember photo frames and pins, a slide-show of wacky parties from the past four years and mustache cookies thanks to charity partners Bread of Life. Plus, our darts challenge. All of this was made possible by the support by XL manager Jane Cui.

At the end of the first night, we had a rmb2,100 donation from XL, rmb1,080 from our darts challenge and cookie sales, and over rmb8000 in mao-a-thon sponsorships and almost rmb6,000 in pin sales and donations. That puts us at just over rmb17,000 for the 2017 Maovember thus far, with lots more to come!

Learn more Maovember here and see what else we have in the queue here:

 

Note: As of November 29, Mike Wester was at 870 km. To read his pledge and / or sponsor him, click here.

Can this dude really walk 900 km in November? Or 100 km on November 7 alone? What does he eat—besides berries and chocolate? And how does he remain sane?

I caught up with Mike Wester, head honcho at The Beijinger, and a Maovember 2017 organizing committee member, as he walked around Ritan Park and discussed his “Mao-a-Thon” quest to cover 900 km next month and raise money for Maovember and its 2017 partners Bread of Life and The Library Project.

Maovember starts in less than 48 hours and you’re walking like a maniac today. Shouldn’t you be resting!?

I’m in training! I might go for ‘a century’ on November 7. That would be 100 km in 15 hours of walking.

You’re averaging about 20 km per day in the lead-up to Maovember. How long does that usually take to walk?

On an uninterrupted path, like around the Gongti track, inside Ritan Park or along the Tongui River path, I walk at 6.5 km an hour, so 20 km can be done in a little over three hours.

Beijing is sadly really poorly designed for pedestrians. With cars parking on the sidewalk, delivery boys racing around honking, a billion sloppily parked share bikes, zillions of crosswalks that no driver respects, and underpasses, overpasses and inexplicably designed infrastructure that create ridiculous impediments, my walking pace is usually 5 to 6 km per hour.

Along with money for charity, I would love to raise awareness about Beijing’s need to become more pedestrian-friendly.

What’s a better title for your mission? The Mao-a-Thon Man, Journey to the Wester, or Michael Learns to Rock Walk?

Either of those first two.

You’re pretty much a non-carb eater, right? But you’re walking for the charity Bread of Life, which is based in a bakery. Any internal conflicts?

I don’t avoid carbs entirely. I aim for around 100 grams a day. I also splurge once a week and eat anything I want.

Besides, what Bread of Life does is amazing. Giving otherwise marginalized people an opportunity for a productive working life is something I am proud to support.

What do you eat on that weekly splurge? Cheetos? Pasta? Whole deep-fried potatoes?

I gotta have pizza once in a while. And if I am ordering at Biteapitta, it’s hard to resist The Pitta Feast. The curries are so good at places like Punjabi, I need rice or Indian-style bread. And a Xinjiang meal just isn’t the same without one of those giant naans either.

I also eat some berries and dark chocolate most days for a snack—plenty of carbs there.

Do you listen to music while you walk or instead indulge in the soothing sounds of Beijing traffic, construction work and expectoration?

I do five things. QQ music: free access to practically every song ever made. Podcasts: Love ’em, mostly sports talk, alternative health, NPR type pseudo-intellectual shit, and weird offbeat ones. Work: I can do about 60 percent via WeChat while walking. Get to know the city: I love people watching, exploring new areas and discovering new things in my long-worn daily paths. Finally, I add to my Beijing Street Fashion Wisdom collection. I spot endlessly amusing ones daily. Like this one I passed a minute ago.

Are you ever tempted to break into a light jog, a medium trot or a frenzied sprint?

No. Every time I do, I end up injuring myself. Plus, I look a little too much like Forrest Gump when I run.

How can people support you?

People can sponsor me two ways. Individuals can sponsor rmb90, which is one mao per km, or rmb450, which is 5 mao per km, in honor of Maovember’s fifth anniversary. All the money goes to Maovember. I’m collecting it by WeChat as it’s easier to track and I can see who donated and do shout-outs on my social media.

I’m also hoping some companies might find in their hearts to support a good cause, with sponsorships starting at rmb500. They’ll get publicity out of it, too, on The Beijinger, maovember.com and other forums.

Read Mike Wester’s personal appeal for donations, including details on corporate sponsorships, at this link. You can donate rmb90 (1 mao per km) or rmb450 (5 mao per km) using the QR codes below. If you use it, please send us a screen shot of your donation so we can list you as a supporter!