Beijing Half Marathon

Course & Elevation

The Beijing Half Marathon is a one-way half marathon through central Beijing, from Tiananmen Square to the Olympic Park, held on a Sunday morning in April. It is organised by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau as part of the Beijing International Running Festival. The 2026 edition was capped at 22,000 runners, with entries drawn by lottery once applications passed that number. The start is on the east side of Tiananmen Square at 7:00. The route runs east along Chang'an Avenue, then north along the east and north sections of the second ring road and on through Dongcheng and Chaoyang districts, passing the city moat, the Yonghegong Lama Temple and the Temple of Earth. It finishes on the scenic avenue in the central area of the Olympic Park, between the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. The course has no turnaround, so it is point-to-point rather than out-and-back. The finish line closed at 10:00 in 2026, three hours after the start. The festival began in 1956 as a spring round-the-city run and was upgraded to a half marathon in 2016, its 60th year. The 2026 winners were Wang Wenjie in 1:01:15, a Chinese national half marathon record, and Xu Shuangshuang in 1:09:54.