The Amazing Race: China Rush 1
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| The Amazing Race: China Rush 1 | |
|---|---|
| Season 1 | |
| Presented by | Allan Wu |
| No. of teams | 10 |
| Winners | Charlie Gale & Rachel Chen |
| No. of legs | 12 |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Release | |
| Original network | ICS |
| Original release | August 8 – October 30, 2010[1] |
| Additional information | |
| Filming dates | April 28 – June 3, 2010 |
| Season chronology | |
The Amazing Race: China Rush 1 (Chinese: 极速前进:冲刺!中国; pinyin: Jísù Qiánjìn: Chōngcì! Zhōngguó) is the first season of The Amazing Race: China Rush, a Chinese reality competition show based on the American series The Amazing Race. It featured 10 teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, in a race across 11 cities in China to win a world tour provided by Travelzen.[2][3] It is the third Asian version of the franchise, after The Amazing Race Asia and HaMerotz LaMillion. The host of the show was Allan Wu, who also hosted the Asian version as well.[3][4]
The Amazing Race: China Rush premiered on ICS on Sunday, August 8, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. (UTC+8).
Australian and American "flirtatious friends" Charlie Gale and Rachel Chen were the winners of this season.
Development and filming

In 2010, the Chinese TV network International Channel Shanghai acquired the rights to produce a version for its territories. The show was produced by Shanghai-based production company Fly Films.[5] International Channel Shanghai had previously attempted to make their own version of the show entitled Shanghai Rush.
Filming took place between April 28 and June 3, 2010.[6]
In this season, instead of flipping an hourglass, teams that have been forced to Yield had to wait until a spiral of incense finished burning, which took 15 minutes. This season was the first time an Amazing Race franchise had three non-elimination legs in a row, as the American and Asian editions have never had more than two in a row. It was also the first one to not offer any Fast Forward clues (the 14th American edition had an unaired Fast Forward was the first season to do so, and 18th American edition was the first American season overall not to offer any Fast Forward clue).
Casting
Applications for the first season ended April 16, 2010 (extended from the original deadline on March 29, 2010).
Broadcasting
Episode 2 which scheduled to air on August 15, 2010 was delayed to subsequent week due to National Mourning Day in China for Gansu mudslide victims.[7]
Marketing
The Amazing Race: China Rush had eight official sponsors: CIIC, Double Tree, Hamilton, Hilton, New Balance, Organic Food, Travelzen and Shanghai International Automobile City.[8]
Cast
The 10 teams, all composed of expats living in China, were announced in a press release on April 27, 2010.[3][4]
Karen is currently the first ever Canadian to be on any of the Amazing Race seasons representing Canada (Canadian citizens Tisha Silang, Natalie Glebova and Vince Chung from The Amazing Race Asia 3 were representing Philippines, Thailand and Hong Kong respectively). Rick, Joshua and Charlie are the first Australians to represent their country (similarly, Australian citizens Brett Money of The Amazing Race Asia 2, Henry Chan and Bernie Chan of The Amazing Race Asia 3 were representing Indonesia and Malaysia respectively), Paul & Francis are the first team from an African country (Kenya), and Janis, Aleksandra (Latvia) and Sarah (England) are the first Europeans to represent their home countries (British citizens Andy Lawson, Laura Kluk, Francesca von Etzdorf and Howard Bicknell from The Amazing Race Asia 1 represented Thailand, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka respectively and Frenchwoman Aurelia Chenat of The Amazing Race Asia 2 represented Hong Kong).
Janis Vaisla died on January 9, 2016, after being diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis and while waiting for a heart transplant in Berlin, at the age of 46.[9]
| Contestants | Age | Relationship | Hometown | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Lebeneiyo | 27 | Maasai Warriors | Rift Valley, Kenya | Eliminated 1st (in Wuxi, Jiangsu) |
| Francis Merinyi | 31 | |||
| Miguel Villaneuva | 27 | Amigos | Mexico City, Mexico | Eliminated 2nd (in Changzhou, Jiangsu) |
| Hector Valenzuela | 31 | |||
| Janis Vaisla | 40 | Reality TV Veterans | Riga, Latvia | Eliminated 3rd (in Yangzhou, Jiangsu) |
| Aleksandra Kurusova | 24 | |||
| Bonnie Wisnewski | 54 | Expat Wives | United States | Eliminated 4th (in Beijing) |
| Mel Plumi | 54 | Arizona, United States | ||
| Sean Slaughter | 27 | Newly Dating | United States | Eliminated 5th (in Tai'an, Shandong) |
| Amy Bromstead | 32 | San Francisco, California | ||
| Sarah Edson | 24 | Ultra-Marathoners | London, United Kingdom | Eliminated 6th (in Tengchong, Yunnan) |
| Molly Fitzpatrick | 34 | San Francisco, California | ||
| Lisa Chiang | 38 | Momshells | United States | Eliminated 7th (in Zhaoqing, Guangdong) |
| Karen Spencer | 45 | Vancouver, Canada | ||
| Deepak Noutiyal | 29 | Cricket Fanatics | India | Third Place |
| Naresh Ludhani | 30 | |||
| Rick Liston | 25 | Best Mates | Melbourne, Australia | Second Place |
| Josh Ogilvie | 29 | |||
| Charlie Gale | 26 | Flirtatious Friends | Australia | Winners |
| Rachel Chen | 25 | United States |
Results
The following teams participated in the season, with their relationships at the time of filming. Note this table does not necessarily reflect all content broadcast on television due to inclusion or exclusion of some data. Placements are listed in finishing order.
| Team | Position (by leg) | Roadblocks performed | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||
| Charlie & Rachel | 1st | 3rd1 | 2nd | 1st | 4th | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 5th | 4th | 1st | 1st | Charlie 6, Rachel 6 |
| Rick & Josh | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 3rd | 1st | 5th | 1st | 3rd | 2nd | 1st | 3rd | 2nd | Rick 6, Josh 6 |
| Deepak & Naresh | 9th | 5th2 | 5th | 4th | 6th | 3rd | 4th | 5th⊂ | 4th | 3rd | 2nd | 3rd | Deepak 6, Naresh 6 |
| Lisa & Karen | 5th | 8th | 8th | 5th> | 5th | 4th | 5th | 4th⊃ | 3rd | 2nd | 4th | Lisa 5, Karen 6 | |
| Sarah & Molly | 4th | 4th | 4th | 6th | 3rd | 2nd | 3rd | 2nd | 1st | 5th3 | Sarah 53, Molly 5 | ||
| Sean & Amy | 2nd | 2nd | 3rd | 2nd | 2nd | 6th | Sean 3, Amy 3 | ||||||
| Bonnie & Mel | 7th | 6th | 6th | 7th | 7th | Bonnie 2, Mel 3 | |||||||
| Janis & Aleksandra | 6th | 7th | 7th | 8th< | Janis 2, Aleksandra 2 | ||||||||
| Miguel & Hector | 8th | 9th | 9th | Miguel 2, Hector 1 | |||||||||
| Paul & Francis | 10th | 10th | Paul 1, Francis 1 | ||||||||||
- Key
- A red team placement indicates that the team was eliminated.
- An underlined blue team placement indicates that the team came in last on a non-elimination leg and had to perform a Speed Bump task in the following leg.
- A yellow > indicates that the team chose to use the Yield; < indicates the team who received it.
- A brown ⊃ indicates means the team chose to use a U-Turn; ⊂ indicates the team who received it.
- Notes
- ^ Charlie & Rachel initially arrived 2nd, but were issued a 30-minute penalty as Charlie helped Rachel in the Roadblock. Sean & Amy checked in during the penalty time, dropping Charlie & Rachel to 3rd.
- ^ Deepak & Naresh initially arrived 4th, but were issued a 15-minute penalty for taking a golf cart instead of walking to the Pit Stop. Sarah & Molly checked in during the penalty time, dropping Deepak & Naresh to 5th.
- ^ Sarah failed to complete the Roadblock in Leg 10. After Sarah's second attempt and after all other teams had already checked in at the Pit Stop, Allan came out to the Roadblock location to inform them of their elimination.
Prizes
The prize for each leg is awarded to the first place team for that leg. All trips are sponsored by TravelZen.
- Leg 1 – A three-day, two-night trip for two to Hangzhou.
- Leg 2 – A three-day, two-night trip for two to Xiamen.
- Leg 3 – A three-day, two-night trip for two to Hong Kong.
- Leg 4 – A three-day, two-night trip for two to Xi'an.
- Leg 5 – A three-day, two-night trip for two to Inner Mongolia.
- Leg 6 – A six-day, five-night trip for two to Mount Huang, Mount Lu and Mount Hua.
- Leg 7 – A three-day, two-night trip for two to Macau.
- Leg 8 – A three-day, two-night trip for two to Lhasa.
- Leg 9 – A six-day, five-night trip for two to Taiwan.
- Leg 10 – A six-day, five-night trip for two to Yunnan.
- Leg 11 – Roundtrip tickets to 10 destinations.
- Leg 12 – World Trip








