Plot

The four remaining teams travel from Banff, Canada to Beijing, China. As they battle for a place in the final three who will race to the finish, they are in for a shock when they receive a "massage". One team makes a costly mistake on the way to the Great Wall.—Allister Coots

At the end of the mandatory rest period, police officers Shane & Andrew, who were the first team to arrive at the end of the previous leg, are first to depart at 2:02am. They open up their clue and find out that they must now travel by bus to Calgary Airport, from where they will fly to China's capital city, Beijing, a booming city of 22 million people that is home to both ancient palaces and modern wonders. Once they land in Beijing, they have to travel to the Ghost Street food district and find a marked stall in order to receive their next clue. They have $40 for this leg of the race. As they leave, they realise that this leg is so important to them because they are down to the final four, which means that there is no tomorrow - if they come last, they are going home. They owe it to their families to have a go at the A$250,000 first prize, feeling that they have done things hard without them, and deserve it as much as they do.

As they board a bus bound for Calgary, brother and sister Joseph & Grace are the second team to depart at 2:57am. They feel that they have a massive chance to make it into the top three. They see coming in second as proof that they are competitive in the game, and board the same bus that Shane & Andrew are on. Cheerleading twins Michelle & Jo are the third team to depart at 3:14am, followed by workmates Paul & Steve at 3:29am. With one leg to go before the final, Michelle & Jo see it as their chance to prove to the other teams that they mean business. All four teams find themselves on the same bus to Calgary Airport, and the game is back on as they sprint toward the check-in counters. Paul & Steve feel that the other teams have turned against them, they have had to play the most uphill battle of the remaining teams, and they want to live up to their perception as a threat team that deserve to be in the final three. All four teams make the same flight from Calgary to Beijing via Vancouver, which lands in Beijing at 4:30pm. Once the plane lands, the four teams search for taxis. Paul & Steve find a taxi van at first, but when the price of 700 Yuan that they are quoted for the trip is close to all of their leg money, they jump out and search for a more conventional taxi. Unaware of Paul & Steve's mishap, Joseph & Grace board a taxi van. Grace has no idea how much their driver's quote of 650 Yuan is, but decides to negotiate once they get to their destination. Shane & Andrew and Michelle & Jo find more car-like and cheaper taxis, as do Paul & Steve. Michelle & Jo hope they can use their blonde looks and the fact that they are twins, which they consider is lucky in China. Both Paul & Steve and Shane & Andrew find the busy traffic to be crazy, like a different world. When Joseph & Grace arrive, their driver charges 600 Yuan, which they find out is about 90% of their budget for the leg. Grace tries to talk him down to 500, but he refuses to budge. When he puts a hand towards his glove box, Joseph tells Grace to hand over the money and go.

Michelle & Jo are the first team to find the marked stall and receive the next clue, which they discover upon opening it up is a Detour that offers teams a choice between two authentic Chinese culinary experiences - Waiter or Wheel. Teams choosing Waiter must take the orders of eight customers in Mandarin and then correctly recite the orders to the chef. Once they have served all guests their correct meals, they will receive their next clue. Teams choosing Wheel must take turns spinning a lazy susan and eat whatever delicacy lands in front of them. After they have completed four rounds, they will receive their next clue. Joseph & Grace and Shane & Andrew are the next two teams to receive the Detour clue, followed by Paul & Steve. Michelle & Jo choose Waiter, while the teams behind them all choose Wheel. Michelle & Jo don aprons and start to take orders from the table of eight, four customers to a waiter, and soon find some challenges in pronouncing the local language, with each item needing several words to be memorised in the right tone. Shane & Andrew are first to arrive at the wheel, and when they see the choices that it offers, they realise that they are not the normal everyday delicacies like meat and two vegetables. Paul & Steve are next to join them, and when they realise that each person has to spin for their team mate, he wants to spin the difficult delicacies. Steve is first to spin the wheel and it comes up on scorpion. Andrew is next, and his spin lands on cicada. Paul is concerned at first about whether deep fried scorpions are safe to eat, knowing that they are venomous creatures, but he enjoys downing them, describing them as being extra tasty and crispy. Shane then receives seven cicadas, and remarks that they are smaller than the type he normally sees growing in his garden back home, and don't taste as good. Joseph is next to spin and lands on starfish, which gives Grace a perception of being something like she normally sees on the beach, but the massive thick starfish revealed to her causes her to scream in a way that is enough for Joseph to get the hint that she wants to switch tasks.

Michelle & Jo start to come to grips with Mandarin, knowing that even the slightest mispronunciation can mean something totally different. One order that Michelle places, which translates into English as salty fried small tea bag, is turned down by the chef, but Jo's order of fried leek dumpling is accepted. Joseph & Grace arrive and start taking orders from another table, deciding to memorise the first order by heart, even if it takes them all night. Both Shane and Paul spin up some bird's nest soup for Andrew and Steve to eat, with Andrew describing it as having a few stringy bits, while Steve reveals later that it actually comes from a bird's saliva. Steve's second spin results in Paul having to eat fish head, and when he opens it up, he is hit by the smell and can see two eyeballs staring back at him. It feels cold and looks disgusting, but Paul has to prove to his own ego that he is willing to do it. Andrew then spins up spring roll with duck anus, resulting in Shane having to eat six rolls, which he describes as tangy and chewy. Paul's final spin ends up on sheep testicle soup. Steve describe the two balls in soup he is served up as being very sinewy and chewy.

Meanwhile, Joseph & Grace struggle to memorise the dishes, and when it gets too hard for Joseph, Grace asks him if he wants to eat a starfish, to which he answers that Grace has to eat it, something she won't have a bar of. She decides to change her memorising strategy at that point by moving her hands in order to help get the tonal positions of the language, and the strategy pays off when her first order of West Lake beef broth is accepted by the chef, who makes it up and hands it to Grace to deliver to the customer. Jo gets the final order of stir-fried shredded potato with soy sauce right. Later, Michelle is amazed by the patience of the poor customers, thinking that by the time they got the pronunciation right on the order and delivered the food, it was cold. Steve makes it through the second testicle, and he and Paul follow Michelle & Jo in receiving their next clue. They must now travel by taxi to the Wuzhisheng Foot Reflection Health Centre, where they will receive a traditional Chinese foot massage for a continuous ten minutes before receiving their next clue. As they both head outside searching for taxis, Shane's final spin results in Andrew being served up starfish. Like Grace, Andrew didn't think it would be as big as it was, but unlike her, he isn't put off by it. He finds it hard to describe what it tastes like, but it is not fishy. Joseph gets an order of braised barbecue pork bun accepted by the chef, which is followed by Grace's final order of fried leek dumpling, making the brother and sister the third team to receive the clue sending them for a foot massage, followed soon after by Shane & Andrew. They see each other when trying to catch taxis and compare notes on how much their fares were, with Shane & Andrew expressing afterwards a feeling that Joseph & Grace had been ripped off. Shane & Andrew catch a taxi easier than Joseph & Grace, who find that all the drivers they approach either wouldn't stop or had no idea what they were saying. Some of the drivers look at them like they are from another planet, but they eventually find a taxi to take them to the health centre.

Michelle & Jo are first to arrive at the foot massage parlour, and Michelle finds the massage to be relaxing at first, then suddenly she feels the most excruciating pain she has ever felt in her life. Michelle's squeals and screams are heard by Shane & Andrew when they are next to arrive, which breaks their conceptions about being like weary travellers looking forward to some rest and recreation with their massage. Andrew is first to get the massage for his team. The ten minute continuous massage involves five minutes on each foot, and if they pulled their foot away, the masseur would have to start the time again. When Michelle's time is done, Jo offers to hold her hand. When Paul & Steve's taxi driver has no idea where they are, the workmates ask him to stop, but they then get frustrated when no one that they ask has any idea where they have to go. At this point, they realise that there is less forgiveness for making mistakes, because one mistake could be the end of their game. Jo gets her massage started, and when the pain hits, she has no idea why people would pay for a Chinese foot massage ever. Michelle tells her to scream it out, and when Jo isn't sure that she will be able to handle it, her twin reminds her that it is for a quarter of a million dollars. Shane & Andrew, feeling bad for Jo, offer their support as allies to the twins. Afterwards, Shane remarks that it reminded him of when his wife gave birth to their first-born son. Andrew doesn't appear to flinch when his time is done, though he tells Shane that he was flinching on the inside before Shane gets into the hot seat and experiences the excruciating pain after his masseur hits the pressure point.

Joseph & Grace are next to arrive and think the massage will be a relaxing challenge, but Joseph thinks that it is a bit suspicious and that there is more to it. Grace tells her masseur that none of the taxi drivers knew their way around to it, then the pain kicks in for her. As Jo continues to struggle against the pain, Grace, who found it tortuous after only one minute, pulls her leg out, meaning that her masseur has to start the treatment again. Jo finishes her massage, and Shane almost expects a midwife to come out and congratulate her on her new baby girl. The masseur hands her the next clue instead, and Michelle & Jo now have to travel by taxi to the 800 year old Marco Polo Bridge. A local legend has it that the hundreds of lion sculptures on the bridge are impossible to accurately count, but when the teams come up with the correct count of lions, they will receive their next clue. Still waddling from the pain of the massage, they need to win a leg in order to gain an advantage and get the best feeling going into the final leg. Shane's massage is done, and he and Andrew are next to get the clue to the Marco Polo Bridge. On the taxi ride, they consider their massages to be painful, although they do admit that their feet are feeling good. Grace's massage is finally done, and she says afterwards that she never wants to experience that again ever. She switches places with Joseph, who thinks at first that Grace was putting on an act, until the masseur digs in to his pressure point. Grace tells him that she feels his pain. Paul & Steve finally arrive at the massage parlour and ask how it is even going to be a challenge, but as soon as they step inside and see Joseph, that question is answered for them. As Steve begins his massage, he grips Joseph's hand until the masseur is done with Joseph, allowing he and Grace to get their next clue. Steve is sweating, crying and needing his hand to be held, describing the massage as worse than getting his tattoo. Paul tries to be supportive in his own way, but after Steve's ten minutes are up, it's Paul's turn to go through the experience. Paul is more mentally prepared to receive the pain and doesn't even scream. When his ten minutes are up, he and Steve receive the clue sending them to the Marco Polo Bridge.

Joseph & Grace see the meter in their taxi going up toward the point where they have to give their driver the rest of their money, but when they step out, they find that the driver has dropped them off at the Marco Polo Hotel instead of the Marco Polo Bridge. They go inside the hotel and ask how far away the bridge is, and the answer that comes back to them is 50 minutes by taxi. With no money left, they decide that travelling on foot is the only option as they think the locals will find it hard to understand them if they ask them for cash, so the concierge gives them a map that shows them where the bridge is. Michelle & Jo and Shane & Andrew arrive at the Marco Polo Bridge and find that its hours of operation are 7:30am to 5:00pm. The hours allow Paul & Steve to get on an equal footing with the teams ahead of them.

The sun rises and the gates to the bridge open. As Michelle & Jo start counting, they are daunted by the number of lions that there are. Shane & Andrew realise that it's not the number of lion statues that they need to count - some of the statues had two, three or four smaller lions attached to the main one. Paul & Steve find that some statues have a baby lion crawling up the back of them, and adopt a strategy of taking the time to get the count right the first time. Michelle & Jo and Shane & Andrew think that only one side of the bridge needs to be counted, but their first guesses of 204 and 224 are rejected as incorrect. Shane & Andrew don't see any sign of Joseph & Grace, who are still walking on their way to the Marco Polo Bridge, with Grace having to convince herself several times to keep walking and not give up despite the long walk. Back on the bridge, Michelle & Jo try to put off Paul & Steve by calling out random numbers, but the workmates counter their tactics by writing the numbers down. Shane & Andrew and Michelle & Jo, having finished their counts of both sides of the bridge, offer guesses of 424 and 435, but both of them are incorrect. As Paul & Steve continue their count, they see some lions on the tops of pillars that they didn't think Shane & Andrew or Michelle & Jo had included in their counts. They write down 446 for their first guess, and are told that it is correct. They receive their next clue, and open it up to find a Road Block. The Great Wall of China is the world's longest man-made structure, stretching for nearly 9,000 kilometres. It was built to guard the northern borders of the Ming Dynasty, and in this Road Block, one person from each team has to break through the warriors who guard their next clue. The team has to travel by taxi to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, where the person performing the task must pass through nine rows of warriors. Only one warrior in each row will allow them through, and if a person is blocked three times, they have to start again. Only when the person has cracked the code will they unlock the next clue for their team.

The fact that Paul & Steve made it in and out of the Marco Polo Bridge task quickly plays on the minds of Shane & Andrew and Michelle & Jo as they continue to try counting lions. This time around, they see the lions on the pillar tops and both arrive at the correct count of 446. After receiving the clue to the Road Block, Shane & Andrew's taxi driver has no idea where the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is, so they try to use their alliance with Michelle & Jo to get the two taxis to travel together, but the cheerleading twins break the alliance by telling their taxi driver not to help, but to drive off, leaving the police officers feeling burnt. Joseph & Grace are exhausted when they finally arrive at the Marco Polo Bridge, but they know that they have to power through the task of counting the lions, and start their count with the lions on the pillars at one end of the bridge. They still have their feet and their brains, and they are still OK. Paul & Steve arrive at the Great Wall of China, which Steve was pretty excited about because he had always wanted to go there. They start to head for the top before realising that the task isn't there, but Paul eventually finds a row of warriors where the challenge starts. He tries looking up, but cannot clearly see just how many rows he has to memorise. He finds the challenge is daunting and could be a long one. The first two warriors he tries in the first row block his way, but he makes it through two more rows before he is blocked for the third time. Watching on, Steve hopes that Paul will take a methodical approach that will allow him to get the task done before other teams arrive.

Unfortunately for Steve, Michelle & Jo have a good taxi driver who takes them straight to where they need to go. As they drop off their backpacks, they see two other backpacks there and know that they are not the first to arrive. Paul finds that the armour worn by the warriors makes it difficult to distinguish them by their faces, so he has to memorise their relative positions in the row - the first row is the far right, the second row is the far left. When he comes to a row of four warriors, the three that he chooses all block him. After being on the Road Block for about five minutes, he finds Jo standing near the start and wonders where the twins keep coming from. On Jo's first attempt, she is blocked by the warrior in the centre, but the one on the right lets her through. Feeling the pressure to perform on her own, she looks up and like Paul before her, isn't sure how many rows she has to pass through. She also didn't realise that there are several stairs on the Great Wall, thinking that it was like a walkway with only stairs every now and then. On one row, both the left and right warriors block her, sending her back to the start. With Jo turning up, Paul finds the pressure getting to him, and finds one particular row difficult to remember. He tries three of the four warriors in that row, but is blocked by all of them.

Shane & Andrew pull into a service station and ask for directions to the Great Wall, getting someone there to tell them to their taxi driver. They find out that they are on the wrong freeway, which causes Shane's stress levels to go up - if he and Andrew miss out on the final three because of a bad taxi driver, it would be crushing to him. Back at the Marco Polo Bridge, Joseph & Grace correctly count the number of lions as 446 and receive the Road Block clue, with Joseph deciding to perform the task. They decide to find a driver who knows the way to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall and then beg for money once they get there, confident that there will be thousands of people there. Michelle talks about the constant rivalry between her and Jo and Paul & Steve, with Jo remarking about the pressure that is on her to complete the task first. After Paul is sent back to the start one more time, Jo makes it to the second last row of three warriors without being blocked, but her first choices of the right and centre warriors block her, making the one on the left the one she needs to pass through. It brings her to the final row needing to find the one warrior of the four present that will allow her through first time. She tries the far left, but is devastated when she is blocked. She now has to remember four more rows that she had advanced through on that attempt. On Paul's next attempt, he makes it through six rows unscathed, but is blocked by one warrior on each of the next two rows before finding the one who lets him through. Like Jo before him, he comes up to the final row needing to choose the warrior who will let him through first time. He picks the warrior on the far right, and it is the right choice. After he picks up the clue from the cauldron, he yells out that he is the Great Paul of China, to which Steve answers that he is a legend. When Jo asks Paul if he got it, he tells her no, but she doesn't believe him. Back with Steve, Paul opens up the clue, and the workmates have to make their way to the next Pit Stop at the Taimiao Temple in the Forbidden City. Located in the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City is the biggest palace complex in the world, with more than 10,000 rooms, and was the home of Chinese Emperors for nearly 500 years. Paul & Steve feel a huge relief to definitely be in the top three, and would be satisfied to come first again. With first place slipping away from the cheerleading twins, Jo finds it both physically and mentally tough to be out of breath and trying to remember the sequence of warriors. She is only blocked by one warrior before she reaches the final row once more, knowing that if she can't find the way through this time, Paul & Steve would be long gone. She is blocked by the warrior on the centre right, but then tries the one on the far right and is let through. She is relieved to finally get the clue, but angry at the same time that she didn't get it faster than Paul.

Shane & Andrew finally make it to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China, and tell their taxi driver to head for the hills. Andrew performs the task, and on the first row, he is blocked by the warrior in the middle before the one on the right lets him past. Shane has confidence that Andrew will sort it out, but he is blocked by a third warrior and has to go back. Back in Beijing, Paul & Steve's taxi driver overshoots the Forbidden City by about a kilometre, leading to them having to run back, while Michelle & Jo are taken straight there by their driver. They both start to search the Forbidden City for the Taimiao Temple, and it is Michelle & Jo who are first to find host Grant Bowler, and when he tells them that they are the first team to arrive, they both let out a scream. He tells them that it means that they will be one of the three teams racing in the final leg for the A$250,000 prize. In addition, he tells them that as the winners of this leg of the race, they have each won A$5,000 courtesy of Southern Cross Travel Insurance, which they can spend after the race, and it is the first time that they have finished as team number one, which they tell him feels good. They are ready to work hard in the final for the chance to win the cash. Paul & Steve check in as the second of three teams racing to the finish. They are surprised not to come in first after being the first to complete the Road Block, but they can take the competition all the way and brag about it afterwards.

Back at the Great Wall, Andrew makes it through seven rows of warriors. On the eighth row, he is blocked by the middle warrior, but the one on the left allows him to pass through. He finds himself physically exhausted when he arrives at the ninth and final row, and having lost count of the number of times he has been up and down the wall, he finds that his physical exhaustion and difficulty in keeping track of the sequence means that he is not sure if he can do it again. He chooses the warrior on the far left and is blocked, but on his final chance, he tries the far right warrior, who lets him through, leaving Andrew feeling like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. After they read the clue to the Pit Stop, they have trouble finding a taxi to take them back to Beijing after not asking their last driver to wait for them. A few people try to offer them their private vehicles as taxis, but they knock the offers back and ask someone to phone for a registered taxi. Joseph & Grace fall asleep as their taxi driver takes them toward the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall of China. When they arrive, they don't see any people there and have trouble trying to understand where they are. Shane & Andrew find a registered taxi to take them to the Forbidden City in Beijing, and are still apprehensive, having not seen Joseph & Grace since they were in the massage parlour. Andrew starts thinking about home and everything that they have been through to get to this point of the race.

Joseph and Grace finally work out that they are in the wrong section of the Great Wall of China, which is very bad news for them. Shane & Andrew find the Taimiao Temple, and are told by Grant that they are the third team to arrive, making them one of the three teams racing in the final leg for a quarter of a million dollars. Having thought that they were out, they consider the news to be a lifeline, and are relieved to be in the final three teams. Well after dark, Joseph & Grace find themselves again having trouble trying to settle their account with their taxi driver, and are surprised when the door to their taxi is opened by Grant, who tells them that they have travelled to the wrong section of the Great Wall and crossed into Inner Mongolia, the other teams have reached the Pit Stop, and they are out of the race, news that they consider heartbreaking, especially given their difficulties over the past couple of days. Grant tells them that they have come a long way, to which they reply that being a brother and sister surviving for this long is a challenge in itself. Afterwards, Joseph reveals that he now sees Grace as a girl that is capable of making her own decisions, which he didn't see her as before, she has really surprised him throughout the race, and he is very proud of her, while Grace considers Joseph an overprotective brother, which is what she loves about him, knowing that even though she is on the other side of the world, she has her brother and he will protect her.