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the proposal - the Hong Kong Mountain Bike Association

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a map of acha-san, left, and various trails around urban seoul, right.<br />

seOUl, KOrea<br />

The city of Seoul has almost ten off-road riding<br />

areas, again with no limitations on bicycles.<br />

Nearly all of <strong>the</strong>m are connected by dedicated<br />

bike paths, connecting public transport interchanges.<br />

One of <strong>the</strong> better and most technically<br />

challenging courses is Acha-San, a park-like cemetery<br />

accessible via <strong>the</strong> Han River <strong>Bike</strong>way past<br />

<strong>the</strong> Olympic Bridge in <strong>the</strong> East side of <strong>the</strong> city.<br />

sINgaPOre<br />

event poster for <strong>the</strong> singapore mountain <strong>Bike</strong> Carnival, riding into<br />

<strong>the</strong> sunset, a course map of <strong>the</strong> Tampines mTB trail in singapore.<br />

While most places in Asia allow or passively encourage riding, Singapore has clearly been <strong>the</strong> most progressive<br />

in harnessing <strong>the</strong> potential for <strong>Mountain</strong> Biking to attract tourism. Despite having far less space<br />

and elevation to work with than <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>, Singapore has managed not only to put toge<strong>the</strong>r a remarkable<br />

10 km cross-country race course, but in 2008 held <strong>the</strong> Great Singapore <strong>Mountain</strong> <strong>Bike</strong> Carnival,<br />

which brought professional riders from all over <strong>the</strong> world to <strong>the</strong> Tampines race circuit.<br />

The event, which saw top regional riders as well as special guests like US Olympian and World Champion<br />

Tinker Juarez, was supported by <strong>the</strong> Singapore Sports Council, <strong>the</strong> Singapore Tourism Board, and National<br />

Parks Singapore. A private firm was contracted – DirTraction LLP – both for <strong>the</strong> event and <strong>the</strong> development<br />

of <strong>the</strong> course. It is now an annual event, run in conjunction with <strong>Bike</strong> Asia. Such a coordinated<br />

effort would be most welcome by local and visiting riders in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong>. DirTraction has in fact expressed<br />

interest to <strong>the</strong> HKMBA of putting on a similar event in <strong>Hong</strong> <strong>Kong</strong> – but so far, a suitable venue does not

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