Two of the fastest marathon courses on earth, two very different races. Here's every stat, side by side, to help you pick.
Indicative — based on GPX data. Both courses normalised to start at 0m.
✓ marks the better number on that stat.
Hong Kong and Shanghai are both major Chinese city marathons, but Hong Kong's route is considerably hillier — 254m of gain against Shanghai's 75m — and its course record (2:09:20) is correspondingly slower than Shanghai's 2:05:35.
Hong Kong runs in January, giving it a role as an early-season target well ahead of Shanghai's typical December slot. For pure speed, Shanghai's flatter profile and faster course record make it the better pick; for a tougher early-year test through Hong Kong's harbour and hills, that race is the more demanding of the two.