Nanjing 2026 International Universities Rowing Open (AKA China Tour 2: Electric Boogaloo)
After the antics of Nanjing 2025, there was little* doubt as to whether PCBC would be re-invited to represent British university rowing on the world stage once again. Nevertheless, PCBC was delighted to receive the golden invitation from Mr Ken Lee to the 2026 competition. Proceedings got off to a slightly bumpy start. Having missed the previous years’ event, the Women’s side were keen to get in on the action. President Dan Foran opened negotiations hard, requesting to bring a ‘big strong’ W8+. After a lot of convincing, many video calls, and a vague promise to bring at least one member of the blue and reserve boats** the PCBC W8+ Nanjing proposal was accepted. Seemingly having snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, the W8+ dream lived just long enough for Dan to submit the passport details before a phone call in the late hours of the night delivered the unfortunate news that the race committee had ‘changed their minds’ and we could no longer bring a W8+. This sadly meant we would only be able to take 2 women on the trip (as coxswain and ‘Team Leader’). The good news is that the women’s side have been invited to a separate regatta in Hengqin in November. Follow us on Instagram (@pcbcoxford) to see how they get on!
The Journey Out
Preceded by countless takes of Nadia chanting ‘Nice Nanjing!’ into a phone camera, we were pleasantly surprised to receive a timetable of events before take-off (and with no hint of the words ‘EgyptAir’ in sight)***. Said schedule was promptly circulated and subsequently read by absolutely no one. Dan was not best pleased when Christian messaged him the night before departure asking what time his flight was and if he had his boarding pass. Other questions submitted approximately 36 hours prior to departure included ‘can you get me some stash to swap’, ‘will we get any spending money’, and ‘what is my visa number’. It was at this point that Dan contemplated cancelling his return flight in order to remain in China as a DiDi driver. Somehow, all 10 team members managed to make it to the correct airport for the correct flight. Following the NATS-induced chaos of the day before, the group were sceptical that their flight would even exist. Thankfully all was well and 50% of team PCBC were contentedly seated in the London Gatwick North terminal Wetherspoons shortly before boarding. Big Nic’s personal goal of extracting every possible freebie from the trip began with a copy of China Daily (in Chinese) from the boarding gate.
As Air China flight CZ832 took off, PCBC settled into a competitive blackjack tournament on the in-flight entertainment systems, this became decidedly less fun however when we realised that said game was in fact rigged. Ed then proceeded to attempt to break the world record for the longest time taken to complete a sudoku, whilst Jamie tried to negotiate a vegetarian meal from the stewardess to no avail. This trip not being his first rodeo, Dan gracefully accepted the chicken without complaint. It was at this point that Jamie voiced a mild suspicion of the coleslaw, though the rest of the group dismissed such baseless accusations against a perfectly delectable, clingfilmed side pot. Approximately 2 hours later, Jamie’s worst fears were affirmed as his half-digested dinner jubilantly returned to greet the occupants of 36A, B, and C. Our transfer in Beijing capital saw a long-awaited reunion with the Dream Garden (see trip to Harbin Jan 2026) before an uneventful transfer to Nanjing.
Each group was greeted at Nanjing arrivals by a swarm of enthusiastic students and television cameras. Having arrived a few hours earlier, Nadia had already made contact with Nereus and ETH Zurich. Both appeared to have misunderstood the assignment by virtue of having actually trained for the event beforehand. They also seemed to be under the delusion that we were in fact the Oxford blue boat; a misconception we felt no urgency to correct. Christian made his very best attempt to assert that he would not be doing the erg relay. Dan decided to disabuse him of this delusion immediately. Our arrival at the Sofitel Galaxy was a bittersweet nostalgia trip, as we were saddened to find that premier fast-food outlet, ‘Lip Smacking Dick’, was sadly no longer in business****.
The Opening Ceremony
Day 1 was a mix of acclimatisation and cultural exchange. Dan, Nic and Oscar were carted off to the Nanjing University of Astronautics and Aeronautics for a guided tour of China’s atomic and hydrogen bombs followed by a round table event with local students. Meanwhile, the rest of the group went to see the Yuejiang temple, where Ed, Jamie, Callum, and Christian ditched their blazers for an outing in the garb of Imperial China. The attached photographic evidence will likely be enough to scupper the chances of whichever one of them tries to stand as prime minister in 30 years’ time (you can thank me later). Swiftly we were shuttled onwards to the opening ceremony river cruise.
This year’s opening ceremony was mercifully short and had dispensed with the symbolic pouring of Nanjing’s finest tap water into a glorified bucket on stage. The race committee had however managed to secure the return of European rowing giant Axel Müller to give the same speech he’d delivered at the previous year’s event. PCBC also experienced our long-awaited reunion with Mr Ken Lee. In what Dan thought would be a winning diplomatic move, he presented Ken with a token of thanks in the form of an OUBC cap (to replace his trademark ARF rowing headpiece). However, despite the initial enthusiasm and slew of group photographs that followed, Dan was more than a tad miffed to see that Ken had in fact re-donned his old ARF rowing cap about 15 minutes later.
The opening ceremony did however see two key successes for PCBC. Success #1: Cian, Ed, Christian, and Callum employed deft skill and natural guile to home in on the bar and secure a crate of 18 of China’s finest TsingTao in exchange for the best part of a fiver. Success #2: Nadia and Dan went full manager mode to negotiate the PCBC women’s trip to Hengqin in November. From the ashes of one women’s trip to China rose another.
Day 2: Flag Waving, Practice, and Cultural Exchange
The morning of day 2 brought with it more pomp and ceremony and yet another speech from Axel Müller. We were then subsequently treated to a 20-minute interlude of flag-waving, with each club getting their moment to walk on stage and wave a flag emblazoned with a logo the organisers had clearly lifted from China’s equivalent of google images. Having mistakenly picked up the Yale flag initially*****, Dan eventually found his way on stage for some “solid 6/10 flag waving” according to Jamie. Team PCBC then spent the morning watching the domestic heats and exploring the sponsorship tents. Nic’s quest to accumulate maximum freebies continued with a premium haul including neon green ‘China Post Insurance’ bags, rowing branded portable fans and Nanjing 2026 branded envelopes. A few hours later and our own training window had arrived. In anticipation of the return of the fake Empachers, we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had, very appropriately, been allocated the one pink boat in the fleet.
The afternoon treated us to another cultural exchange at Nanjing Normal University. A somewhat bland discussion about rowing was made a deal more entertaining when Christian was unwillingly dragged up to the stage to answer questions on the ‘the true soul of sportsmanship’. His retelling of the most un-sportsman-like encounter of his life followed by “but not that… if you know what I mean” was truly inspired. Nanjing Normal University also served as the backdrop for the first erg of the trip. Callum heroically represented PCBC in the 100m sprint but sadly fell foul to an atrociously timed relapse of his historic allergy to staying on his seat. 2 or 3 unintended dismounts later and Callum had nevertheless put up a very respectable time and was gifted a second unbranded version of the visor he had already received from the regatta organisers. Nic was the first to remind him that “free stuff is free stuff”.
Back at the hotel Ed’s inability to use chopsticks returned to haunt the group; in the absence of a knife to cut his bao bun, our resident engineer decided to try and saw the bun in half with his chopstick. This precipitated an unexpected sequel to the battle of hastings, as the chopstick snapped in half with the pointed end ricochetting millimetres away from Nic ‘Harold Godwinson’ Nicolaou’s eye. The day was bookended with a trip to a local bar in which a beer tower, a pack of cards, and Cian’s absolute inability to memorise the rules of any card game made for ample entertainment.
Race Day – Event 1: The 1000m Heats
Finally, we were out on the water for the first racing of the regatta. It was hot… 35 degrees hot. Spectators on the bank could hear Christian actively sizzling in 7-seat. Given a teaspoon of oil, some light seasoning, and 5 minutes on each side, he would not have been out of place as a main course in a French restaurant. Despite the daunting task of going up against last year’s winners, we were determined to perform. The crew were pleasantly surprised to find on the way up to the start line that, not only could they row, but they could in fact row well together. Both heats saw us put in a strong effort holding Otago for most of the course, but not quite enough to beat them to the finish line. With the Australian universities having brought actual Olympians in their squads (some might argue not really in the spirit of the event), this put us in a respectable 9th place out of 18. Most importantly, we came in a healthy 52 seconds faster than Peterhouse Cambridge (everyone knows Nanjing 2026 was the real Oxbridge fixture the public wanted to see).
Event 1: The 4 x 500 Erg Relay
With a helpful push from his teammates, Christian’s accelerated journey through the five stages of grief had allowed him to finally come to terms with the fact that he would be doing a 500m erg. Thus, he, Nic, Oscar and Callum readied themselves for their erg-flavoured extravaganza. Apparently having learned nothing from his encounter with an extraordinary dose of UV-B during summer eights earlier this year, Mr Callum ‘sunstroke’ Murray himself, once again decided to prepare by locating and standing in the most un-shaded, sun-exposed spot in the plaza. Cian promptly ushered him into the shade to avoid Sol claiming a second victory against our intrepid proletarian hero. Rather embarrassingly for Peterhouse, it appeared that after having come last in the morning’s heats, the race committee had decided, in order to avoid any further damage to Cambridge’s international reputation, to downgrade their branding from ‘University of Cambridge’ to ‘Peterhouse’.
As the relay started, PCBC immediately took the lead as big Nic powered ahead of the competition whilst Cian, Callum, Christian, and Oscar tried to anchor the erg to the ground. The PCBC boys performed admirably with slick changeovers and big watts again placing PCBC 9th out of 18.
The 3000m Exhibition ‘Bumps’ race
Following lunch was the fan favourite exclusive saved specifically for Oxford, Cambridge and select other crews. Obsessed with bumps racing, Ken had long aspired to include bumps in the annual Nanjing regatta. However, when actual bumps had been trialled 3 years ago with Oxford, Cambridge, and some Chinese crews who hadn’t the foggiest of what bumps actually was, the result had naturally been carnage. The compromise was a 3k “bumps pursuit” exhibition head race, with crews set off in 30 second intervals. As the final event of the day and 2 boats behind Peterhouse, we saw a unique opportunity to try and bump Cambridge. Our first bump came 1500m in as we overtook Hunan Normal University. We then slowly whittled down the lengths between us and Peterhouse, managing to get a length off as we crossed the finish line whilst narrowly avoiding being bumped by Nereus, thus securing a well-deserved 2nd place. The awards ceremony and post-race celebrations brought an end to the day’s events.
Goertek Poster-boys (and girls): G-Camp, G-School, and G-tech
The excitement of the universities’ regatta had subsided, but for PCBC and Peterhouse, the trip was far from over. Bags packed, the two groups departed, alongside Ken and his wife, for Weifang in Qingdao for an exciting schedule of Goertek-themed activities generously arranged by Ken’s friend and former colleague, Jaden. And so, after a day of travelling and getting to know Ken’s wife, we arrived in G-Camp, an artificially constructed outdoor activity with accommodation designed in the style of an Elon Musk-inspired mars base.
The first activity of the day was a rather exciting-looking high ropes course. That was however, after the ‘essential’ dance warm up (the video of which Dan has ensured will never see the light of day). The course was in fact not completely straightforward, or at least that was our take until Oscar worked out that it was in fact possible to take a running jump and simply zip-line along the wires at each section of the course (somewhat defeating the object altogether). As Lili, Nadia, Nic and Ken completed their course, Ed, apparently blissfully unaware of the identity of the woman who had been following us around for the past 36 hours, introduced himself to Ken’s wife and asked, “so do you work with Ken then?”
Following the high ropes came the dragon boat racing and with it, the second Oxbridge water clash of the trip. Coxing team PCBC was Ken, who seemed more focused on getting good pics on the water as opposed to developing any kind of consistent race strategy. On this occasion, with PCBC handicapped at 8 rowers to Peterhouse’s 10, Peterhouse managed to edge forward finishing a canvas ahead. We were of course both absolutely thrashed by the championship team racing alongside us.
Adequately drained from the morning’s activities, we were relieved when lunchtime arrived. Said relief briefly evaporated when we learned we would be making our own dumplings for lunch. Half an hour (and some questionable pastry folding) later, the fried dumplings arrived and, against all expectations, were in fact very tasty.
The afternoon’s excursion took us back into the city for a tour of G-school and the chance to meet year 7-9 students enrolled there. Nadia spent the entire tour lamenting that her school did not have a climbing wall and slide in the main atrium and that she would forever regret having not spent her secondary education at G-school. Following on from last year’s theme of surprise ergs, this year instead presented us with a surprise panel Q&A event for the parents. Dan, Luke (Peterhouse), and Ken spent well over an hour fielding questions from teachers, children, and parents about all aspects of rowing and Oxbridge college life whilst the title theme from Star Wars was intermittently blasted in the background to herald the arrival and departure of anyone who deigned to grace the stage (Dan insists he had absolutely no role in selecting the playlist).
The Journey Home
When the bus arrived the next morning for our scheduled 5am departure, Ken calmly sat down next to me and asserted with an entirely inappropriate sense of calm thoughtfulness, “I think we may miss our flight”. Pressing him further on this rather unexpected concern, we learned that we were due to arrive at the airport approximately 45 minutes before take-off. Cut to 06:40 am, and we were queuing at check-in with T-40 minutes until take-off. A greater despair set in when we arrived at the 35-minute-long security line. It was also at this most opportune moment, that Chinese security decided to select Nic’s suitcase for a random security check. By some small miracle (namely sweet-talking a guard to fast-track us through security) the entire group made it to the gate at 07:10, boarding with 10 minutes to spare. By an even greater miracle, our baggage also made it to Nanjing with us.
One connecting flight to Beijing later, having cleared Chinese immigration, it so nearly came to pass that an uneventful trip home was achieved. What more could possibly go wrong you might ask. However, it would seem that no PCBC trip to Nanjing would be complete without someone losing their passport. Who was it this time? Could Ed really have lost his passport in a Chinese airport terminal twice in a row? Indeed not, as following the 2025 Shenzhen incident, Dan had seen fit to chain Ed’s passport to his ankle Alcatraz-style. In fact, against all expectations, it was Oscar who nonchalantly mentioned in passing as Dan emerged from ‘Chinese Commodities’ in search of a red bull, “oh by the way, I think I’ve lost my passport”. In sheer disbelief that this could really be happening a second time, the proverbial beacons were lit, calling the rest of the group to come help look for the missing document. Whilst Jamie helpfully sprang into action, Messrs Dunning and Nicolau did not feel sufficiently panicked to leave their recently acquired table at pizza hut, with Ed smugly commenting “I told him not to carry it in his pocket”. The irony was seemingly lost on Ed.
Oscar set about retracing his steps, despite insisting he had ‘looked everywhere’. Jamie had the unenviable task of searching the men’s toilet cubicles, gaining a few strange looks from the cleaner and various patrons of the ‘Whiz-palace’ in the process******. Dan, meanwhile, approached a rather unhelpful airport attendant who suggested we call the police despite not knowing the number for the police or whether they were even present in the airport. But most importantly of all, Ed’s ‘hot sausage’ pizza had arrived allowing him to tuck in, blissfully ignorant of the chaos underway outside immigration. Mere moments away from phoning the British consulate in Beijing, Oscar finally found his passport on the floor in the corner of the souvenir shop he had ‘already checked’. Crisis averted, the team spent their final hour in China between Pizza Hut and a desperate search for literally any caffeine containing energy drink. Dismayed that there was not a single can of monster in Beijing Terminal 3E, team PCBC finally boarded their flight back to London Heathrow.
Once again PCBC had enjoyed a successful trip to the Nanjing 2026 International Universities Rowing Open. We would like to thank Ken, the race committee, Jaden, Goertek, and all of our hosts in China for their persistent generosity throughout our stay. We very much hope to be back again soon. Xiè Xie. 我们爱南京
* Significant
** naturally made without consulting either Annie or Katie
*** if you would like the context surrounding our dislike of EgyptAir, simply ask Rob Doane-Solomon to tell you about the worst flight of his life
**** a monumental loss for the Nanjing fast food scene
***** no prizes for guessing where they got their inspiration from
****** unfortunately, at the time we were unable to rule out the possibility of Oscar’s passport having had an unfortunate encounter with a squat hole
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