Some 4,000 people are expected to run in the first Taiwan-Pingtan Marathon Invitational Tournament on June 1.

Organizing committees from Taiwan visited their Pingtan counterparts on Friday to enhance event coordination.

According to the event schedule, the race will start in June and last for two days.

The race is divided into three parts. On June 1, participants will start off at the Taichung city government square, run along Taiwan Boulevard to Taichung Port, and then board a passenger liner to Pingtan on the Chinese mainland. Runners will then start again at Longfengtou Bathing Beach on June 2 and run along Huandao (Island Ring) Road.

As of April 25, the deadline for registration, 3,500 people in Taiwan have registered to run in Taichung; 150 of them will also take the vessel to continue running in Pingtan. As many as 470 participants, including 20 from Pingtan on the Chinese mainland, will take off in the Pingtan section.

Out of consideration for the health of amateur runners, the marathon is divided into three categories, the full-marathon (42.2 kilometers), the half-marathon (21.1 kilometers) and the mini-marathon (5 kilometers), in both Pingtan and Taichung.