TransLantau by UTMB® 2026

Hong Kong, you picture skyscrapers, neon lights, Victoria Harbour, dim sum at 7 a.m. 🥟. What you probably picture less is yourself running along wild ridgelines at 934 metres above sea level, crossing paths with free-roaming water buffalo and skirting stilt fishing villages that look like they’re from another century 🐃. And yet, that’s exactly what TransLantau by UTMB® offers—one of the most disorientingly exotic trail rendezvous in Asia. Every early November, Lantau Island, Hong Kong’s largest island with its 146 km², turns into a playground for thousands of runners coming to discover what the metropolis hides behind its towers 🌿.

What it hides is well worth the detour. More than half of Lantau’s surface area is designated nature park, protected from the urbanisation that has turned the north of the island into a new town. The contrast is dizzying: you land on Lantau, you hop in a taxi, and there you are in Mui Wo, the race’s starting village, facing a sandy beach and wooded hills 🏝️. No concrete, no skyscrapers—just the trail. It’s a bit as if someone slipped a piece of New Zealand into the heart of Southeast Asia. Handy, isn’t it? 😄

The race also has a great story. Born more than ten years ago under the simple name TransLantau, it joined the UTMB® World Series in 2022, becoming one of the series’ first events in the Asia-Pacific region 🏅. A crowning achievement for a race that had already won over the most demanding trail runners long before! Today, four distances let everyone find their place on the trails of the island. The flagship race, the "TransLantau100", is 104 km with 4,500 m D+ to complete in 27 hours, starting from Mui Wo, at night 🌙. The route crosses the island end to end all the way to Tai O, the famous stilt fishing village nicknamed the "Venice of Hong Kong", via Fung Wong Shan, Hong Kong’s second-highest peak at 934 metres! ⏫

For those who’d rather not spend two nights on their feet, the "TransLantau50" offers 45 km with 2,500 m D+ on the coastal trails at the island’s eastern tip 🏝️. The course winds around the Chi Ma Wan Peninsula, climbs Lo Yan Shan and heads back up towards Discovery Bay with a steep climb up Lo Fu Tau 📍. The "TransLantau25" covers 27 km with 1,100 m D+, perfect for discovering South Lantau Country Park without sacrificing your legs for the next three weeks 🥸. And the "TransLantau15": 15 km and 500 m D+, serves as an entry passport into the UTMB® universe for runners who want to bite the hook before aiming higher 👟.

What makes this trail truly unique is the density of experiences per kilometre 🤯. Running the "TransLantau100", you literally pass in front of the Po Lin Buddhist monastery in Ngong Ping, founded in 1906, and its famous Big Buddha statue watches you go by from the top of its 268 steps in the night 🙏. You run through Tai O and its colourful stilt houses at daybreak 🌄. You follow coastlines swept by the South China Sea. And if that’s not enough to keep you awake in the final kilometres, know that the village dogs waiting for you should be avoided! The organisers even mention it in the briefing, which is probably the most picturesque pre-race warning on the world circuit 🐕. The wild water buffalo, protected by Hong Kong law, also share the trails with total indifference 😎.

Once you’ve crossed the finish line and found your legs somewhere back on Lantau soil, the island still has plenty in store to fill the days that follow 🎉. Head to the fishing village you ran through—but that you deserve to discover at human speed—over a plate of fresh seafood overlooking the lagoon 🦐. Next, it’s impossible to leave the island without going up to the Po Lin monastery in Ngong Ping, this time by cable car—you’ve earned it 💝. And when your legs start craving asphalt and noise, Hong Kong Central is 35 minutes by ferry from the Mui Wo pier: shopping in Causeway Bay, dim sum in Aberdeen, the skyline from Victoria Peak… The whole city opens up to you like a bonus reward after the effort ⛴️. 

If the idea of finishing an ultra by running in one of the world’s most incredible cities speaks to you, go explore TransLantau by UTMB® 🚀.