Running the trail to his roots

Rising actor Jiwu Cisha trades busy film sets for rugged terrain, honoring his mountain heritage, Xing Wen reports.

For many city dwellers, a mountain trail race is an escape. For Jiwu Cisha, it's a return home.

The 29-year-old actor flew from his intense filming schedule in Foshan, Guangdong province, to Chongli, Hebei province, for his first-ever 30-kilometer race on Sunday morning. Despite a rain-soaked, muddy course with slippery, treacherous terrain that sent many fellow runners struggling to stay upright, Jiwu found the whole ordeal more therapeutic than taxing.

"I had to wake up really early," he says. "But once I started running, surrounded by the energy of the race and those mountain views, I forgot all about being tired."

Born in the remote mountains of the Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province, Jiwu never saw mountains as a weekend getaway.