The Amazing Race China

Each of teams are composed of two individuals who have some type of relationship to each other. One of the team member is a celebrity of China (Expect one team are son and daughter of a Chinese celebrity).

The participants mainly speaks Mandarin, but between the teams, teams will communicate either in Cantonese, English or Korean.

Route Markers are yellow and red flags that mark the places where teams must go. Most Route Markers are attached to the boxes that contain clue envelopes, but some may mark the place where the teams must go in order to complete tasks, or may be used to line a course that the teams must follow.

Clues are found throughout the race in sealed envelopes, normally inside clue boxes. They give teams the information they need and tasks they need to do in order for them to progress through the race; Clues are written in both Chinese and English.

• Route Info (信息): A general clue that may include a task to be completed by the team before they can receive their next clue.
• Detour (绕道): A choice of two tasks. Teams are free to choose either task or swap tasks if they find one option too difficult.
• Roadblock (路障): A task only one team member can complete. Teams must choose which member will complete the task based on a brief clue about the task before fully revealing the details of the task.
• Fast Forward (快进): A task that if completed allows a team to skip all remaining tasks in the leg and go directly to the Pit Stop. A team may only use the Fast Forward once during the race. Appeared in Season 1 and 3.

Teams may encounter the follow obstructions that could potentially slow them down:

• U-Turn (回转): A station located after a Detour where a team can force another trailing team to return and complete the other option of the Detour they did not select. The Double U-Turn which allows two teams to exercise their U-Turn power. There is also a vote U-Turn which having all teams voting at the start of the leg for whom they wish to receive the U-turn; The team with the most votes would be U-turned sometime during the leg. With the differences is on all season voted before the leg starts at the hotel, and during Seasons 1, 3 and 4, teams may discuss whom to vote before voting, whereas other versions could not.
• Yield (让路): A station where a team can force another trailing team to wait a pre-determined amount of time before continuing the race. The teams had to wait until the sand of hourglass was all gone, which took 15 minutes. It appears in Seasons 1 and 4.
• Intersection (联合): A sign indicating that two teams must complete further tasks together until a clue indicates that they have been unintersected.
• Versus / Face Off (对抗): An obstacle which has two teams compete against each other in a specific task. The winning team is given the next clue, while the losing team must wait out a 15-minute penalty before receiving the next clue. It was called Versus in Seasons 1 and 2, and later renamed to Face Off from Season 3.
• Invasion (踢馆): The intruders will be starting the race at the start of a given leg. In their invasion leg, the intruders must place in the top (Ninth leg) or top two (seventh leg) to continue racing. If they fail their invasion, they may be eliminated from the race. If they succeed, the last team to check-in may be eliminated, and the intruders will keep on racing in future legs. The invasion only appeared in Season 2.
• Intersection with Integration Versus (分组对抗积分赛段): Introduced in Season 2, it was a combination of both the Intersection and Face-off markers. All teams were intersected at the start of the leg, and both teams will travel to assigned locations simultaneously and perform a versus at each location, either by timing or head-to-head. After certain rounds, the team wins the most matches are automatically safe while the losing team must complete another versus; the losing team of the last versus will face elimination. Similar rules are adopted in Season 3 with different intersection points on certain locations, instead of the entire leg. This twist was absent in Season 4.

At the beginning of each leg, teams receive an allowance of cash, usually in local dollar which the team visit, to cover expenses during the race.

Teams then have to follow clues and Route Markers that will lead them to the various destinations and tasks they will face. Modes of travel between these destinations include commercial and chartered airplanes, boats, trains, taxis, buses, and rented vehicles provided by the show, or the teams may simply travel by foot. Each leg ends with a Pit Stop (中继站) where teams are able to rest and where teams that arrive last are progressively eliminated from the race until only three remain. The first teams to arrive at the Pit Stop win prizes, usually from the show's sponsors.

• The Express Pass (直通卡): It is awarded to the winners of the first legs, allows that team to skip any task they want during the race. In Season 1, Jin Dachuan & Liu Chang won this pass, one for themselves and gave the second one to Zhang Tielin & Yueliang; Jin Dachuan & Liu Chang used their Express Pass to bypass their U-Turn by Zhong Hanliang & Jackie in Leg 3. Zhang Tielin & Yueliang used their Express Pass to bypass a Route Info task on the same leg. In Season 2, Yang Qianhua & Ding Zigao won this pass, one for themselves and gave the second one to Zeng Zhiwei & Zeng Baoyi; Yang Qianhua & Ding Zigao used their Express Pass to bypass the Detour in Leg 4. Zeng Zhiwei & Zeng Baoyi used their Express Pass to bypass a Route Info task in Leg 4. In Season 3, Liu Chang & Jin Dachuan won this pass again, one for themselves and gave the second one to Jin Xing & Heinz; Liu Chang & Jin Dachuan used their Express Pass to bypass the Detour in Leg 4. Jin Xing used their Express Pass to bypass a Roadblock in Leg 3.

Since Season 4, the Express Pass has been given out inside one of the clue randomly in Leg 1, allowing any team to win it rather than it being a definite award for a first-place finish on the leg. Fan Bingbing & Xie Yilin won this pass, one for themselves and gave the second one to Zheng Yuanchang & Wang Likun. Fan Bingbing & Xie Yilin used their Express Pass to bypass the leg's second Roadblock in Leg 2. Zheng Yuanchang & Wang Likun used their Express Pass to bypass the Face-off in Leg 4.

• The Save/The Return Ticket (復活卡): The Save is awarded to the winner of the eighth leg in Season 1. The team that wins the pass must use it and make a team that was eliminated to return at the ninth leg. Zhong Hanliang & Jackie won the pass and the make Bai Jugang & Guan Xiaotong to return to the race who were eliminated in Leg 2. It later returned on Season 3 and was renamed to The Return Ticket, and revised the effects, it must be used before Leg 4. The winner of the second leg, Zhang Zhehan & Zhang Sifan won the pass. They later used the pass at Leg 3 to save Jin Xing & Heinz who they were eliminated on the same leg. The Save/Return Ticket were absent in seasons 2 and 4.

Each race has a number of predetermined non-elimination legs, in which the last team to arrive at the Pit Stop is not eliminated and is allowed to continue on the race.

• Speed Bump (减速带): A task that only the team saved from elimination on the previous leg must complete before continuing on.
• Rest Time Penalties: In some non-elimination leg of Season 2, teams receives penalties during team's rest period. In Leg 3, The last team must sleep in a store floor for resting one night. In Leg 7, The last team travel to the next destination by economic class while other team travelling in the business class.

In the first season, a virtual pit stop is not counted as an actual pit stop where teams do not rest, beginning the next leg immediately without receiving the usual money or prizes (hence, virtual). Unlike the other versions where the last team were not given a non-elimination penalty and was told to continue racing, the last team was instead eliminated from the race.

• Unlike American versions, teams were not allowed to take note during the race.
• As the race are starting at the country that teams will race on instead of the last country teams raced on, the pit start is different to American version. Team will depart either at the same time, or in intervals between 1 and 5 minutes apart instead of departing at the time when teams arrived on the previous leg.
• In the event the last team were currently serving a penalty was saved by a non-elimination leg, their remaining penalty will not be carried forward to the next leg. In the American version, the penalty would continue to apply to the start of the next leg.

• In Season 1 and Season 3, failing to complete any challenge (including Roadblocks and Detours) will result in a 1-hour penalty that will be assessed at the Pit Stop; partially-completed tasks will receive a 30-minute penalty.
• In Season 2, failing to complete any challenge (including Roadblocks and Detours) will result in a 1-hour penalty that must be served before teams were able to continue racing.
• From Season 4 onwards, a 2-hour penalty will be assessed at the Pit Stop.
• In Season 2, if the teams cannot finish the Face Off, they must wait until the last team served the 15-minute penalty before assessing another 15-minute penalty.