The Peking to Paris motor race was an automobile race, originally held in 1907, between Peking (now Beijing), then Qing China (now the People's Republic of China) and Paris, France (then the Third French Republic), a distance of 14,994 kilometres (9,317 mi).
The idea for the race came from a challenge published in the Paris newspaper Le Matin on 31 January 1907, reading:
- "What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Paris to Peking by automobile?"
Eventually the race started from the French embassy in Peking on 10 June 1907. The winner, Prince Scipione Borghese, arrived in Paris on 10 August 1907.[1]
- ^ "Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, 2007. History - What was it all about?". PekingtoParis.com. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014.