Ping An Tower: 3,201 Steps Straight Up

Look up at the Shenzhen skyline and you'll see glass, steel, and some very expensive views. Tower runners see something else entirely: a stairwell with a finish line at the top.

That's the beautifully simple secret of tower running. No trails to navigate. No weather to fight. No tactics to outsmart. Just a lobby, a finish line, and several thousand steps in between.

599 meters.
3,201 steps.
116 floors.
One handrail.
Nowhere to hide.

Welcome to the Ping An Finance Centre Vertical Marathon.

The Tower

Ping An Finance Centre rockets 599 meters above Futian, the pulsing core of Shenzhen's business district and the tallest building in the Greater Bay Area. On race day, its stairwell transforms into a track: 3,201 stairs, 116 floors, and 8 flat stretches of roughly 60 meters each.

Those flat stretches are a trap. They feel like mercy. Your legs know better. Ease off and the bill comes due twenty floors later.

The City

No city suits this sport better. A few decades ago, Shenzhen was just a fishing town. Today it's one of the most vertical cities on earth, and it wears that fact proudly. Tower running takes Shenzhen's greatest love, its towers, and turns it into a stopwatch. From Futian, the city's heart, Ping An Tower cuts a silhouette you can spot from miles away.

The Field

The race has surged. About 1,000 runners took on the 2025 edition. By 2026, the field had swelled to roughly 1,500 from 15 countries and regions. Elite tower runners now share the start line with firefighters, police teams, university clubs, and weekend warriors. Shenzhen's police, traffic police, and fire departments all send their own squads. When the countdown begins, nerves are the great equalizer: nobody looks like a champion at the bottom of 3,201 steps.

At the front, the standard is savage, with two races held each year. On January 10, Soh Wai Ching (Malaysia) won in19:23, ahead of Ryoji Watanabe (Japan) 19:39 and Mark Bourne (Australia) 20:13. On October 24, Wai Ching Soh again took first in 20:01, followed by Ryoji Watanabe 20:27 and Siming Han 韩思名 (China) 20:36. With 2027 still blank on the calendar, the next chance to climb is anyone's guess.

The Whole Sport

Tower running, also called stair racing or vertical marathon, is wonderfully compact. Races last anywhere from a few minutes to about half an hour, and every one is a full-throttle sprint to the top. The Tower Running World Association runs the global tour, where each race carries a points factor. Shenzhen is a heavyweight: both the 2025 and 2026 editions carried the top factor of 200.

The venues read like a bucket list:

• Empire State Building Run-Up, New York
• Taipei 101, Taiwan Province
• DC Tower, Vienna
• Sky Tower Run, Poland

Imagine a racing calendar where every finish line is a rooftop.

My Journey

I've climbed Ping An twice. The first time, I finished 46th in about 27 minutes. The second time, I finished 18th in 26:37. Twenty-three seconds sounds trivial,  but over 3,201 steps, it bought me 28 places. That's the math of vertical racing: the field is so tight that a handful of seconds rewrites everything.

3,201 Steps. One Question.

No switchbacks. No downhills. No second chances. Just you, the stairs, and a clock that never blinks.

If you're in Shenzhen and you've been hunting for a race that's short, brutal, and like nothing else on earth, this is it. Look up. Then start climbing.

To register for the 2027 race, please visit: https://www.towerrunning.com/

Image of Paul courtesy of Ping An Run Up

About the Author

I'm Paul. Endurance athlete. Triathlete. Trail junkie. Based in Shenzhen, I've chased finish lines across Hong Kong, mainland China, and the US, from razor-sharp ridges to desert switchbacks that go on forever.

Right now, I'm chasing something bigger: the Triple Crown of 200-mile races. Three of the nastiest ultras on the planet, all in one season. Most runners call it insane. I call it Tuesday.

Off the trails, I co-founded BodyChefs in Shekou with my wife, Kama. We fuel athletes with real food that performs, clean meals, energy gels that don't taste like regret, electrolytes, protein, and collagen. And I test every single product myself on those brutal long runs. If it doesn't keep me moving when my legs are screaming, it doesn't leave the kitchen.

Through racing, training, and a whole lot of suffering, I've picked up practical lessons on trail running, nutrition, recovery, and race-day grit. I share all of it, because for me, it's never just about my finish line. It's about bringing the whole community with me.

If you would like to reach out to me, please contact me via the WeChat QR listed below.: