The Heart Sutra states: "When there is no attachment in the heart, there is no fear. Free from delusion, one reaches ultimate Nirvana."
The Gobi is not just 121 kilometers—it is a rose covered in thorns!
The Gobi is not just 121 kilometers—it is a lifelong learning platform!
This is a journey to discover and explore your own soul!
This is a journey to continuously ignite the team!
This is a journey of unexpected encounters with the divine every day!
Amidst sandstorms everywhere—in a journey full of uncertainties—to finish safely, to find the "Gobi" in everyone's heart, to find your "True North"!
The 17th Ultra Gobi Challenge, awaited for over 700 days and nights, finally arrives with warmth and radiance!
On May 1st, the 17th Path of Master Xuanzang Ultra Gobi Challenge officially kicked off. A total of 5,052 participants from 109 teams took on the challenge, trekking 121 kilometers on foot over four days and three nights through the Mogao Gobi—known as the "Eight Hundred Miles of Shifting Sands." They experienced the pilgrimage path where Master Xuanzang faced near-death experiences and ultimately achieved a transcendence of life, realizing the great sublimation of "Ideals, Action, Perseverance, and Transcendence."
This year's Ultra Gobi 17th was destined to be extraordinary. Though it weathered many changes, the "youth" from business schools remained steadfast in their original aspirations, sprinkling passion and striving for progress across the vast Gobi Desert.
Alliance Institute sent a total of 10 members to compete in this year's Path of Master Xuanzang Ultra Gobi Challenge.
Alliance Institute has set multiple records in the Ultra Gobi Challenge: Ultra Gobi 16th was the first team to complete group registration; this year, Ultra Gobi 17th was the first team to complete the departure ceremony.
For seasoned Gobi veterans, Ultra Gobi 17th was a "journey home." For first-time participants, the road ahead was filled with novelty and the unknown—but it is precisely these unknowns and challenges that make our belief even stronger.
This year's challenge was exceptionally arduous. On the first day, the teams were greeted with a baptism of harsh weather: a blue-level wind warning, with yellow sand flying everywhere. In the following race days, the sand and dust returned with a vengeance, growing worse and worse. But the warriors of Alliance Institute kept moving forward, facing the wind and sand, day and night.
Sand and stones flew, the wind howled—yet not a single team member gave up or retreated. Even those who were unwell and advised by doctors not to compete insisted on staying at the forefront of the Gobi Desert alongside everyone else. That is the spirit of Alliance Institute. In that moment, they were all heroes.
In 626 AD, the monk Xuanzang embarked on his journey to the West to obtain the Buddhist scriptures, writing a legendary story of survival in the western desert—nine deaths and one life, unwavering perseverance.
In 2023, we carried the spirit of the challenge—"Ideals, Action, Perseverance, and Transcendence"—following in the footsteps of Xuanzang's journey to appreciate the passion and tension of life.
On the road, under the sun, in the wind and sand, amid the greetings and blessings of Gobi Buddies—do you also hear the call of the thousand-year Gobi? That is the horn of the Gobi, the whispers of the shifting sands, and the inspiration of the Xuanzang spirit!