Peking Express

Peking Express is a Dutch–Flemish reality game show that follows a series of couples as they hitchhike to or from Beijing (only in the first three seasons; the following seasons are set elsewhere around the world). The series, first broadcast on 14 March 2004, ran for seven seasons from 2004 to 2008 and was revived in 2012 (as a sole Dutch production) and again in 2017. In the Netherlands, it was screened by Net5 and in Belgium by VT4 during its original 2000s run before moving to Q2 in 2017. The game show concept has also been sold to a number of countries around the world since 2005.

General theme

The theme of the show is to demonstrate how various couples deal with the challenges and pitfalls of attempting a long-distance hitchhike to a strange city, together with all the difficulties presented by trying to communicate in a language they don't understand. Tension was added by including couples who had broken up "in real life", but were willing to work together for the sake of winning the race.

In somewhat similar fashion to The Amazing Race, couples that come in last at various checkpoints along the way are eliminated from further competition. In the second series, each of the couples was given €1 per person/per day as their stipend along the route.

Theme music

The music used during the opening sequence is "Summon the Worms" from Brian Tyler's soundtrack to the 2003 miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune.

Winning couples in the international versions

Africa

Moroccan seasons

America

Colombian seasons

Mexican season

Asia

Israeli seasons

Europe

Belgium/Netherlands seasons

Denmark/Sweden/Norway seasons

French seasons

German seasons

Greek seasons

In this version, there are only celebrity couples.

Hungarian seasons

In this version, there are mainly Hungarian VIP couples.

Italian seasons

In this version, there are mainly VIP couples.

Polish seasons

In this version, there are only celebrity couples.

Romanian seasons

In this version, there are only celebrity couples.

Spanish seasons

International versions

A German version was shown in 2005. The concept has also been sold to Scandinavia where it was broadcast for the first time in the autumn of 2007. The Scandinavian version is shown on Kanal 5 in Sweden, TVNorge in Norway and Kanal 5 in Denmark.

A French version named Pékin Express is screened by M6, with twenty-two season, as of 2026. It can be seen on TV5 outside France. In Spain, the first four seasons of local version Pekín Express aired on Cuatro from 2008 to 2011; Atresmedia acquired the rights in 2015 and has produced two seasons since.^[3] An Italian version has been produced since 2012 by RAI and shown on Rai 2 successfully until 2020, when it passed on Sky Uno. In Poland, the series has been broadcast on TVN since 2016 and was known for its first two seasons, which were set in Asia, as Azja Express. From season 3 onwards, it has been known as Ameryka Express, with its production location changing to America; a fourth season premiered in spring 2020. In Romania, the series has aired successfully on Antena 1 since 2018 as Asia Express România for its first four seasons, with the next two seasons in 2023 being titled America Express România, following the changing of its production location into Americas, and then returning to Asia since 2024. In Greece, the series has started airing on Star Channel as Asia Express in fall 2022.

References

1. ^ Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the route was changed after 6 months of shooting put on hold. Original plans were to travel through Ethiopia and United Arab Emirates finishing in Dubai, but it was possible to shoot only the 3 first episodes in Uganda.
2. ^ "Pechino Express"
3. ^ Migelez, Xabier (16 January 2015). "Antena 3 arrebata a Cuatro el reality 'Pekín express'". FormulaTV

External links

• Peking Express at IMDb