About orienteering

On 17 & 18 September Nordic Ways Vasa organises its next event inside the magnificent Jingyuetan Park: the Vasa Orienteering Festival (VOF) already looks set to become a classic sports and fun event for young and old alike.

A few months after the successful launch in autumn 2010, Nordic Ways and the Changchun Tourism Bureau, with support of the Changchun government, agreed on a long-term cooperation for the promotion and development of the sport of orienteering in Jilin’s capital city. An additional objective is to set up a major international orienteering event within a few years. 

Orienteering originated in Sweden in the late 1800s, mainly in the form of military training. Crossing through unknown land using a map and a compass rapidly grew in popularity across Scandinavia and became a civil activity as well. When compasses became more readily available, orienteering also spread to other nations (e.g. Soviet Union, Switzerland, Hungary) and continents, particularly after the end of the Second World War. The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) was established in 1961 and began to coordinate the sport at a global level. Currently, efforts are on-going to introduce a format suitable for inclusion in the programme of the Olympic Games.

The overall sport of orienteering contains four different disciplines recognised by the IOF: foot orienteering (which is the form being organised in Changchun), mountainbike orienteering, ski orienteering and trail orienteering. Focus is not only on speed, but also on navigational skills to find your way from checkpoint to checkpoint via the use of compass and maps, which are usually provided to participants right before the start of the competition to ensure fairness. Orienteering is a test for both the body and the mind. 

Vasa’s upcoming event is set up in such a way that every participant can enjoy two fine days of foot orienteering inside the Jingyuetan forest. It is not only meant for those people who seek competition glory. VOF is a sports happening for all! 

Further Information on the Vasa Orienteering Festival in Changchun can be found on the website of Nordic Ways (www.nordicways.com) . There is also a video about last year’s first edition. (http://www.nordicways.com/english/index.php/category-777.html) You can register for the VOF via an email to carina.qin@nordicways.com or registration@nordicways.com , or via telephone number +86 (431) 8964 5455.