Liu Minxia

PART of a long worldwide tradition of “Hashing,” which dates back to 1938, the Shekou Hash House Harriers is regarded as the oldest expat sports club in Shenzhen.

The group was founded Nov. 12, 1984 by two expatriates. Most of the original members of the club have since left Shenzhen, but the enthusiasm for Hashing hasn’t waned over the past 23 years.

“We are a club with runners of all levels, and our members are foreigners and local Chinese of all ages,” said Edward Hoffman, a club member who flew with his wife to Perth, Australia, along with five other Shekou Hashers, to attend the bi-annual “InterHash” during Easter weekend last month (attended by more than 4,300 Hashers from 85 countries).

He said the Shekou club begins each week by finding a “Hare” or “Hares.” The job of the “Hare” is to find a place to run in the countryside around Shenzhen, and to mark a trail using environmentally friendly paper, flour or chalk.

The trail is marked to give the runners a route to follow, but with a twist. “We mark the trail with ‘checks,’ where the markings stop, and the runners must find the correct way,” Hoffman said. “One trail is the right one, but there are false trails and tricks involved, so each ‘check’ must be solved. During the run, the runners in front yell ‘on on’ to help runners behind find the correct trail. During a longer or harder run or climb, there may also be a ‘Hash Halt,’ where the runners in front wait for those in back to catch up.”

The run, which usually lasts for more than one hour, ends in a “down down,” which involves members sitting in a circle. During the “down down,” members sing Hash songs to welcome new members, remember birthdays, or even give someone a “Hash name,” which is why almost all the members of the club have a funny Hash name.

John Spencer, whose Hash name is “Free Willy 2,” is one of the club’s earliest members, and has been with the Shekou Hash so long that he can’t remember exactly when he joined. “Unlike the early days, it’s difficult to find a countryside place to run now,” Spencer said. “Sometimes we have to drive over an hour to find a proper place. But when we first Hashed, we used to go to the old Nantou, which was still undeveloped but an ideal place for Hashing.”

Spencer said the club now usually goes to Xili, Longgang, or Bao’an for Hashing, and after each run, members go directly to a restaurant, where they consume a lot of food and beer. “You can say our club is either a drinking club with a running problem, or a running club with a drinking problem,” Spencer joked. “We ask members to talk no religion or politics.”