I was looking through Twitter and came across this tweet:
rinaz @rinaz 5h5 hours ago
New blog post : http://rinaz.net/2014/10/pechino-express/ … Italian version of The Amazing Race in Singapore!Interesting! So I went to
http://rinaz.net/2014/10/pechino-express/. I found a fairly detailed story with lots of pictures about the show Pechino Express. It sounds like an Italian clone of Pékin Express. Pechino is Italian for Beijing. Traveling frugally, having to get help from the local people to move forward in the race, etc. At first glance it may not be as hardcore as Pékin Express. It was in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur while Pékin Express (in my limited exposure) has gone to rural areas more than large cities. It appears that Pechino Express has already run 6-7 episodes and have 2 left before the end of the season. I don't know if there were any earlier seasons.
I'm at work and can't explore this further right now. So the details are up to others to dig up, unless I can later. I did find the Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/PechinoExpress. More pictures there and more info in Italian. I haven't tried to translate it yet. Also, they have a web page at
http://www.pechinoexpress.rai.it. I haven't explored that much at all.
This also appears to solve one of my mystery sightings from last July in Kuala Lumpur, though I didn't see the woman in the picture in the Pechino Express pictures.