Race Across the World

[Liquorandvinegar]

New series starting next week - really looking forward to it. The teams are travelling in Asia, but I can't find information about the couples yet. Wednesday nights sorted!

I spent 8 weeks backpacking in China in 1987. Fascinating but bloody hard work.

I wouldn’t recognise a square inch of it today!

The brothers are my favourites so far.

I’ve never really watched before but I was gripped tonight! I’ve been to Beijing and Shanghai, both were amazing. Love Yin and the two brothers.

Place marking, great first episode, loved the sisters and brothers

Not sure I'm warming to any of the couples at the moment... maybe Yin & ? Quite a few frustrating edits and missing info as ever! So far it's not as good as previous series but I will probably still get hooked.

Evening all.

I wonder what the mother and son's back story is. She seems quite game.

Having read their Q&A on the BBC website, they both seem obsessed with Tom being hungry and/or overtired, much like a toddler...

My takeaway (ha!) from the first episode was how on earth did they get so many amazing shots of the great wall without it being rammed with tourists?

And also the village that was their first check point - looked absolutely stunning, especially at night and filmed from the air. Just gorgeous.

I can see the wealthy brother getting very much on my nerves before too long.

The brothers have a great attitude I think - let’s make some memories.

I have a lot of admiration for the young couple, seems like they haven’t had a chance to travel much (and this is really in at the deep end), I’m sure there’ll be a lot of safety protocols in place to make sure his diabetes is managed.

Not warming to mum and son couple, maybe frustration getting the better of them.

Not really warming to Caroline and Tom.

I like Letitia and Yin most, find it funny they have a Chinese woman who doesn't speak Chinese!

Am not minding the Welsh couple or the brothers so far.

Gaz is okay, but I think Letitia's sister is used to being older sister, so a bit of tension possibly there.

Missed the first bit - whats the relationship of the 2 older men, friends?

I found travelling in China hard work even with a native relative, can't imagine doing it like this!

The brothers have a great attitude I think - let’s make some memories.

They have completely the right idea.

My mum died recently...have I any piccies of the two of us together? Nope. It was always one of us taking a pic of the other, and I never thought to do selfies.

Their piccies will be fondly looked at over the next 20 odd years or more.

I didn't realise it was starting tonight🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️ I looked on TiVo to see what it was recording for tonight, but I didn't notice this and it should be set up to auto record so I'll go and investigate now, I got halfway through the thread but too many 'spoilers' and will read the thread after I've seen it!!

Hopefully will be here next week to join in xx

But then someone is staying for a couple of weeks, so I probably won't be able to join in then🙄🙄

Enjoy the chat and I'll catch up and join in when I can

Haha, I agree. I went to Shanghai and Beijing many times as cabin crew and always struggled with the food.

I was very impressed with the girl that spoke Chinese. That must have been a good help.

I keep encouraging my DC’s to apply as they’d have a blast (if they didn’t kill each other first), but they say they don’t have enough of a backstory. I’m sure I could make one up for them …

Th

They are brothers. One did well and is very much used to the finer things in life. I get the feeling they drifted apart.

I think Gaz is still in love with Yin but she's totally over him and just thinks of him as a friend.

Signing up to the thread. I've always loved RATW.

Loved the first episode & like them all. The sister who speaks Chinese is massively impressive! Love this show & wish they’d do longer episodes on iPlayer where you can see how they manage to figure the way to the train station etc.

@ChompandaGrazia
I’m amazed that she can’t speak any Mandarin. Surely she would have leaned from her parents or other family.

What's with the amazement?!?

Yin is early 50s, she or certainly her parents would have been 1st generation immigrants. She talks about growing up, meeting Gaz in the mid 80s. Going from that background, my guess would be that her parents are Cantonese speakers, who emigrated from HK. She may have grown up here hearing Cantonese, and no Mandarin at all which would have been entirely normal.

China is a big country, although Mandarin is standard, there are hundreds of Chinese languages, never mind regional accents.

I'm liking all the pairings so far, found the brothers really touching.

Who are you directing that to @LucieChardonas I’ve passed no comment on Yin??

Sorry @MrsPeterHarris , edited my post to add the PP's quote. Got lost in translation... :)

You must be watching a different programme to me. I wanted them to get on the wrong train to Mongolia and never catch the others up. 😆

I like the sisters but feel they have an unexpected advantage with Letitia’s Mandarin skills. Do the producers allow ringers?

DD and I can't get over the size of Melvyns suitcase! It's about 3x the size of Gaz and Yins tiny backpacks, god knows what he's got in there. I assume he's got back problems otherwise why drag a massive case round.

that was really great
and they are now allowed in China,
i hope the edits dont show too much relationship difficulties,