World Class climbers set to scale Shanghai

Guess who's climbing to town? According to the Shanghai Daily, the world's top climbers are coming to mainland China for the first time May 2nd and 3rd for a contest hosted by the International Federation of Sports Climbers.

The competition is going to take place on the green in Lujiazui Financial City, amongst some of Shanghai's tallest buildings. The climbers will be climbing on an artificial wall set up specifically for the event, rather than the Jinmao tower - there are no French spidermans here. The world's top eight men & women speed and lead climbers are all going to be in attendance, as well as the 2008 Chinese National Champions.

Amateur climbing enthusiasts are welcome to sign up as well and the event is free to the public. What we find interesting, however is that of the top sixteen speed climbers who are coming to Shanghai for this event, only two men and two women will be participating in the Asia X Games, which take place a week earlier in the same city! Furthermore of those four athletes, three of them are Chinese! The only non-Chinese participating in both events is Maxym Styenkovyy of the Ukraine.

What gives? Are the Asia X Games not a big enough deal for the world's best climbers to make the trip a week earlier?