A New Year concert is held for 2019 Wuxi Beverly Marathon at the Wuxi Grand Theater on Dec 9. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Registration for the 2019 Beverly Wuxi Marathon will be open from Dec 11 to 25, 2018, and the event will be held on Mar 24, 2019, when runners can enjoy the cherry blossom landscapes of the Yuantouzhu Park.

Race organizers have expanded the number of entrants to 33,000, with 20, 000 places reserved for the full marathon, 10,000 for the half marathon and 3,000 for the mini-marathon.

The news was announced at a news conference which was a prelude to a New Year symphony concert held at the Wuxi Grand Theatre on Dec 9.

Besides professional athletes, sponsors, media crews and public benefit organization members, the 3,100 runners who have participated in the marathon four times before in the past five years will also be given direct qualifications.

To encourage runners to do their best and to believe in the race's slogan - "UR the Best", runners who make their personal best (PB) times will be rewarded with a classic PB T-shirt. In addition, a special gift will be presented to the runners that were able to run more than three hours as well.

The official vest, pink gloves and finishers medal of 2019 Wuxi Marathon were unveiled at the press conference as well.

The official vest of 2019 Wuxi Marathon is unveiled at the press conference in the Wuxi Grand Theater on Dec 9. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Featuring Wuxi cultural elements and sports icons, the finishers medal of 2018 Wuxi Marathon was awarded the bronze prize at the 22nd World Congress of the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS).

"I introduce our Wuxi Marathon event to the world every year with changes we made and traditions we’ve kept. We make changes to ensure participants a better experience, which is our belief that will never change," said Li Changzheng, general manager of Huipao Events, a Wuxi company in charge of organizing several marathons across China.

The biggest changes this year are that the press conference was held at Wuxi Grand Theater for the first time, followed by a New Year concert presented by the Szirom Symphonic Roma Orchestra from Hungary.