A 100 km trail race sounds like a niche event for a few hundred hard cases. On Moganshan it fills the mountain. The Kailas Moganshan Skyrace (凯乐石莫干山跑山赛), a Moganshan trail race that started with 800 runners in 2017, put more than 11,000 on the mountain in October 2025. This year it runs from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October, and entries are closed. If you aren’t running, the race still decides whether you find a bed and which roads are open. If your room is on the course, it decides how much you sleep.
Moganshan (莫干山) is a bamboo mountain and former hill station in Deqing County (德清县), Huzhou (湖州), Zhejiang, about 60 km north of Hangzhou and 200 to 240 km from Shanghai. It isn’t Moganshan Road in Shanghai, the M50 art district. The race starts and finishes on Yuxin North Street (庾信北街) in Yucun (庾村), the market town where the road up the mountain begins.
| The 2026 race | As published |
|---|---|
| Dates | Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October 2026 |
| Start and finish | Yuxin North Street, Yucun |
| Categories | 100 km, 70 km, 50 km, 30 km, 20 km, 10 km, youth 10 km |
| First start | 100 km, Friday 18:00 |
| Last cut off | 30 km, Sunday 16:00 |
| Entry | Closed; places were drawn by lottery on 18 March |
| Size of the 2026 field | 15,000, from about 40,000 applicants (Deqing News, 27 October 2026) |
| Road closures for 2026 | None found by 21 October |
Dates, start, categories, times and the lottery, Letour Sports (朗途体育), the organiser, race rules, 9 February 2026, tier 3. https://moganshan.saihuitong.com/article?id=69954&mid=57201
Every entry route marked closed (报名已截止), Letour Sports (朗途体育), event page, read 15 October 2026, tier 3. https://moganshan.saihuitong.com/events?mid=72300
Nobody from this site has run the race. Everything here comes from dated written sources.
The Moganshan trail race is seven races
The name sells the 100 km. The weekend is seven races, staggered so that somebody is on the paths from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. The real distances are not always the round ones.
| Category | Actual distance | Climb | Start | Cut off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 km | 99 km | 5,903 m | Fri 18:00 | Sun 00:00 (30 hours) |
| 70 km | 67.2 km | 3,618 m | Fri 19:00 | Sat 14:00 (19 hours) |
| 50 km | 50.3 km | 2,615 m | Sat 06:00 | Sat 21:00 (15 hours) |
| 20 km | 23.1 km | 1,049 m | Sat 08:30 | Sat 16:30 (8 hours) |
| 30 km | 31.6 km | 1,570 m | Sun 06:00 | Sun 16:00 (10 hours) |
| 10 km and youth 10 km | 8.5 km | 460 m | Sun 09:00 and 09:30 | 3 hours |
The two longest races start in the dark on Friday, so the slowest 100 km runners are still out on Saturday night, more than a day after they left. The organiser sends the course file to entrants only, so this page can’t print the route. Walkers on the upper paths that weekend should expect runners at any hour.
Entry cost RMB 350 for the 10 km and RMB 1,400 for the 100 km. The longer races want a qualifying finish from the past year (a 50 km trail race before the 100 km, for example). There’s no late place to buy. Running on somebody else’s number gets the runner and the number’s owner banned.
Distances, climb, start and cut off times, fees, qualifying finishes and the ban for running on another person’s number, Letour Sports (朗途体育), race rules, 9 February 2026, tier 3. https://moganshan.saihuitong.com/article?id=69954&mid=57201
From 800 runners to 11,000
The first race ran on 28 October 2017. About 800 people started, and each finisher took home a medal shaped as a sword, after Gan Jiang and Mo Ye (干将莫邪), the swordsmith couple in the legend behind the mountain’s name. Renamed the Moganshan Skyrace in 2018, it drew more than 3,000 runners that year and 5,000 in 2019. It paused for the pandemic and came back with new landmarks on the course, the Sword Testing Cliff (试剑崖) and Mogan Ridge (莫干岭) among them.
When entries for 2025 opened that February, applications passed 10,000 on the first day, against 9,000 places. The organiser added 2,000.
800 runners on 28 October 2017, 3,000 in 2018, 5,000 in 2019, the sword medal, the new landmarks, the 2025 applications and places, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 10 April 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/04/10/034924244.shtml
On race weekend in October 2025 more than 11,000 started, in 14 waves across five categories. The organiser had 97 foreign nationals on the entry list.
More than 11,000 runners, five categories, 14 waves, 97 foreign entrants, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线) carrying Tide News (潮新闻), 27 October 2025, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/202510/t20251027_31306828.shtml
The county paper and the provincial press call that field an Asian record. Nobody publishes the list it beats, so treat the phrase as the resort’s description rather than a measured fact. The organiser bills 2026 as the race’s tenth year and hasn’t said how many will start. Mogan Yujie (莫干庾街), the shopping street in Yucun, puts the field at 15,000 in its 19 October announcement. That is the street’s figure, not the organiser’s.
Field of 15,000 as announced by Mogan Yujie (莫干庾街), carried by Deqing News (德清新闻网), 19 October 2026, tier 4. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/10/19/035314153.shtml
After the race the county paper gave the figure in its own reporting: about 40,000 people applied for the 15,000 places. The week 44 dispatch has the rest of that report.
About 40,000 applicants for 15,000 places, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 27 October 2026, tier 2. https://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/10/27/035320494.shtml
What 11,000 runners do to the beds
Xinhua counted nearly 900 licensed guesthouses around Moganshan in September 2026. Set a field of 11,000 against that, then add the partners and children many runners bring.
Nearly 900 licensed guesthouses (近900家合规民宿), Xinhua News Agency (新华社), 29 September 2026, tier 2. http://www.zj.xinhuanet.com/20260929/2bb0c09f3dc547deb5beb818d6b25693/c.html
In 2025 rooms near the course were hard to find a week before the start, and more than 100 guesthouses and hotels were full two nights running. A runner friendly alliance (跑者友好联盟) of more than 100 guesthouses and restaurants offered late checkout, cheaper breakfasts and free transfers.
Rooms hard to find a week before, the alliance and its offers, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线) carrying Tide News (潮新闻), 27 October 2025, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/202510/t20251027_31306828.shtml
The bigger numbers come from the resort’s management, not a statistics bureau, and this site prints them as its claims: more than 30,000 overnight visitors over the 2025 weekend, and nearly RMB 100 million spent locally, up more than 300 percent on the period before.
Full houses, overnight visitors and spending, the last two from the resort’s data, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线) carrying Hangzhou Daily (杭州日报), 29 October 2025, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/202510/t20251029_31312010.shtml
If you want a quiet weekend in the bamboo, 23 to 25 October is the wrong one. Come the week after.
Roads, shuttles and the night
We found no traffic notice for the 2026 race by 21 October. Last year’s came out on 17 October, a week before the start, from the resort committee, the county traffic police and the organiser. It put Yuxin North Street under traffic control for three days. Zhuyuan Road (竹源路), Huangfu Road (黄郛路), the Yulan road (于烂线) and Cuiying Road (翠莹路) shut in phases to cars, scooters and bicycles, and part of Huangfu Road, the town’s main street, ran one way. The police set the hours on the day.
Phased closures for 24 to 26 October 2025, Deqing traffic police (德清交警), notice of 17 October 2025, as reprinted by the 108 community forum (德清108生活社区), tier 4. https://m.108sq.cn/deqing/shuo/detail/69640851
Expect the same shape this year, and send your guesthouse your arrival time before you travel. Private cars already stop below the scenic area; the car ban explains the rule.
Every race shuttle was marked closed on 21 October, including the RMB 15 seats from Deqing station to the Moganshan transfer centre (换乘中心) on 23 and 24 October, and from Deqing West on the 24th. Do not rely on buying a race shuttle seat now. Deqing station covers the ordinary way up. The week 43 dispatch also covers the rain forecast and the street party over race weekend.
Race shuttles marked closed, Letour Sports (朗途体育), event page, read 21 October 2026, tier 3. https://moganshan.saihuitong.com/events?mid=72300
It takes a lot of people. In 2024 the race used more than 1,100 volunteers, 207 rescuers, 77 rescue vehicles and 24 coaches across 17 stations. Villagers shut their dogs in so they don’t chase the runners.
Volunteers, rescuers, vehicles, coaches, stations and the dogs, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 10 April 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/04/10/034924244.shtml
Watching it without a race number
The rules are strict about company. Nobody may run alongside an entrant, and help from a friend is allowed only at an official station. Shops and stalls along the way are fair game, and the villages make the most of it. In 2025 villagers ran 23 “energy stations” (能量加油站) with chicken, sweet potatoes and green rice cakes, and stood at dark junctions with torches.
No companions on the course, support only at stations, purchases allowed, Letour Sports (朗途体育), race rules, 9 February 2026, tier 3. https://moganshan.saihuitong.com/article?id=69954&mid=57201
23 village energy stations and torches at junctions, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线) carrying Hangzhou Daily (杭州日报), 29 October 2025, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/202510/t20251029_31312010.shtml
The easiest place to watch is the finish. In 2025 Mogan Yujie (莫干·庾街), Yucun’s riverside street, held a market of more than 60 stalls and a concert, and drew more than 20,000 people on the opening night. The 100 km finishers trickle in from Saturday into Sunday; the 10 km runners come in on Sunday late morning.
More than 60 stalls and 20,000 people on the opening night, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线) carrying Tide News (潮新闻), 27 October 2025, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/202510/t20251027_31306828.shtml
What stays on the mountain
The county has been building for races. Deqing News reported that it had restored 35 km of old paths and built 100 km of trails and 75 km of cycle paths, enough for races up to 100 km. In January 2026 the resort announced ten new routes and more than ten branded races for the year, Ultra Trail Mogan among them.
35 km of old paths restored, 100 km of trails, 75 km of cycle paths, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 10 April 2025, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2025/04/10/034924244.shtml
Ten new routes and more than ten branded races in 2026, Deqing News (德清新闻网), 19 January 2026, tier 2. http://dqnews.zjol.com.cn/dqnews/system/2026/01/19/035134575.shtml
On litter the rules are firm. Stations hand out no disposable cups, a runner caught dropping rubbish is disqualified, and the organiser collects its course markers afterwards. We found no published survey of the paths after a race weekend. The wear on the old stone steps is unmeasured.
No disposable cups, disqualification for litter, markers collected, Letour Sports (朗途体育), race rules, 9 February 2026, tier 3. https://moganshan.saihuitong.com/article?id=69954&mid=57201
If the race weekend is the one you have, book the room first and plan the rest after. Rooms across the resort are listed on Trip.com, and where to stay explains the villages.
Last checked 29 October 2026 by Liyan Ye. Prices, timetables and entry rules on this mountain move without notice, so confirm anything you are booking around.
Photographs on this site are representative illustrations, not documentary images of the specific building, property or service described.
