Amazing Race Canada goes on the road to China
Political unrest is a constant concern on overseas legs of show
One cannot, to debunk a popular myth, see the Great Wall of China from space.
“We looked for it,” says retired International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield. “It’s the same colours as its surroundings. “It’s almost beautifully camouflaged.”
The Great Wall can, however, be seen on Tuesday’s episode of “The Amazing Race Canada” on CTV at 8 p.m.
“It was always on our radar,” says Insight Productions chief and executive producer John Brunton. Finally, in season 5, the dream to visit this “wonder of the world” has become a reality.
Not that there weren’t challenges, says Brunton, who always travels with the teams competing from across Canada as well as a small army of camera operators, sound engineers and other crew members.
“We started thinking about how we could logistically go to different places,” says Brunton while being interviewed at the ancient and picturesque Juyongguan section of the Great Wall, about 60 kilometres from downtown Beijing.
“Then, having made this plan months ago, things started to heat up on the South China Seas.”
The actual race was filmed last May, just as U.S. President Donald Trump was threatening a military response to North Korean longrange ballistic missile tests. The distance from Beijing to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang is just over 800 kilometres — roughly the equivalent of Toronto to Quebec City.
Brunton says Chinese officials started getting concerned about people entering the country, “particularly with a couple of tons of equipment and a whole bunch of boxes that have to be accounted for.”
Everything brought in had to be taken out, Brunton adds. The producer had to post a $300,000 bond to assure Chinese officials nothing would be left behind.
Political unrest is a constant roadblock on overseas legs of “The Amazing Race Canada.”
Plans to visit Kenya this season were scrapped after risks on the way to safari locations were assessed.
“It’s a little bit trickier in some countries than it used to be,” says Brunton, “and that’s a constantly shifting situation.”
Teams competing this year were thrilled to make it to the historic wall, even if they only caught a fleeting glimpse.
“From what we could see it was obviously gorgeous,” says Ryan Lachapelle, who teamed with Collingwood, Ont., pal Kenneth McAlpine as the always positive pair known as “Team Give’r.”
As viewers will see Tuesday, teams were given a tour guide task to perform at the wall, challenging them to speak a few languages. Then it was quickly on to the next challenge.
“This is a race,” says McAlpine. “You have to embrace where you are, but if you stop and stare at the sights too long, teams will pass you by and you could be at the tail end of the pack.”
The other challenge for teams running through Beijing: pollution. Montreal siblings Andrea and Adam Cavaleri were shocked at the air quality.
“It’s the first thing we noticed,” says Andrea. The fact the series took them directly from the pristine mountains and fresh air of B.C., she adds, only made the contrast worse.
Another complication during the Beijing leg of the race: sandstorms.
“They said the air quality was five times worse than normal when we were there,” says Toronto’s Sam Lambert, running with partner Paul Mitskopoulos. “You’d walk outside the hotel and breathe in the air and think: this is far from refreshing.”
Edmonton husband and wife Karen and Bert Richards also choked on the air but praised the streets of downtown Beijing as virtually litter-free.
“The sky is so polluted but the ground is so pristine,” says Bert.
Racers visited other venues in Beijing including a stop at the National Olympic Sports Centre, a Chinese herbal medicine shop, and the local Canadian Embassy, one of Canada’s largest in the world. There they witnessed — what else? — a ball hockey game.
By the time season 5 is over, the finalists will have raced more than 50,000 kilometres from start to finish.
“The Amazing Race Canada” returned for a fifth season earlier this month and the debut was by far the most-watched show of the summer. The first episode drew 1,888,000 viewers, according to ratings gatherer Numeris.