If you didn’t manage to secure one of the 5,000 individual participant spots for the Macau Bridge fun walk this Sunday, don’t despair. Due to overwhelming demand, the Sports Bureau has announced that it will be adding an extra 7,000 slots, bringing the maximum number of participants from the original 10,000 to 17,000.
Originally, the walk was intended to have 5,000 group participants and 5,000 individual participants. Online registration for the latter experienced an outage when it launched yesterday morning, due to the overwhelming number of residents vying for a spot.
A second round of registration for the additional 7,000 individual participants will run from tomorrow at 10 am until Wednesday noon. Interested parties may sign up through a dedicated website.
The walk is 6 kilometres long and will commence from the Taipa side of the Macau Bridge in the Pac On area. Participants will then walk to Urban Zone A before proceeding back to Taipa.
Residents who sign up for the walk will be given an event wristband and an electronic certificate of completion. As well, they automatically go into a draw to win one of the 1,000 limited edition t-shirts.
[See more: Get a chance to walk across the Macau Bridge before it opens to cars]
This is not the first time that Macao has held such bridge walking events. The Amizade Bridge held a similar walk with 15,000 participants a few days before it opened in 1994. Similarly, the Sai Van Bridge saw 50,000 people attend a bridge walk prior to the opening of the East Asian Games in 2005.
The strong demand for such walks appears to indicate a desire by residents to be able to walk across the city’s bridges on a regular basis and not just before the bridges open to vehicular traffic.
Currently, it is only possible to to walk across the Governador Nobre de Carvalho Bridge, but its narrow footpath and fast moving traffic can make the experience an uncomfortable and even dangerous one – especially when buses roar past. There has been no word from officials on when or if proper footpaths and cycling lanes will be added to Macao’s bridges.
Meanwhile, in order to facilitate travel to Sunday’s event, the Sports Bureau announced that shuttle buses will be provided, going from Avenida Doutor Mário Soares (near New Yaohan), to Rua Central da Areia Preta (near Hac Sa Wan Health Centre), Rua Norte do Patane (near leisure area in Baía Norte do Fai Chi Kei), and Taipa Central Park (Rua de Seng Tou), to the meeting point of the event, the Taipa Ferry Terminal. Shuttles depart between 6:30 am and 10:30 am, and make the return trip between 9:30 am and 1:30 pm.
No specific date has been announced on when the 3.1-kilometre Macau Bridge will open to vehicles, although the Public Works Bureau stated in July that it expected the structure to be operational by the third quarter of this year.
