About Hack123

Hack123 (黑123) collects every hackathon featured in the Chinese “Beginner Hackathon Series” (入门黑客松系列) newsletter, plus leads we find on X, WeChat and event platforms. It is one of the most complete lists of hackathons in China — Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and more — together with international and online hackathons that are open to participants from China.

Each English page gives a short summary and the key facts (deadline, prize, eligibility, format, city) with a link to the organizer’s official page. The original Chinese listing is kept below each summary. Eligibility, dates and prizes are always subject to the organizer’s official announcement.

1:1 hackathon consultation

You’ll be talking to Henry (袁老师): he has won more than 10 hackathons, with over $50,000 in prizes, and now builds Hack123.

For students who want to take part in hackathons, or parents whose kids do: a one-on-one online session over a WeChat voice/video call. Based on your (or your child’s) situation, we pick the right hackathons, settle on a project direction, and run through the pitch together before demo day.

Book a consultation

Who it’s for

Students: it’s your first hackathon or your first time leading a team and you’re not sure where to start; you have an idea but aren’t sure which event to pick or how to plan the timeline; or you’re stuck halfway through.
Parents: you want your child to join a hackathon and want to know which events fit and how to prepare.

What we can help with

Choosing hackathons: look at which events fit the grade, interests and goals.
Setting a direction: discuss a project direction based on past projects and where things stand now.
Pitch prep: go through the presentation together before judging.

The consultation helps with choosing events, setting a direction and preparing the pitch. It does not guarantee awards or competition results.

How long

Usually 1 to 2 hours is enough to sort things out.

How it works

Fill in the booking form with the basics: grade, interests, target hackathons, past projects, and where you’re stuck.
Henry reviews everything in advance, then schedules a time to talk over a WeChat voice/video call.
After the session, we add each other on WeChat. You can ask follow-up questions on WeChat anytime, and follow-up Q&A doesn’t count toward the session time.

FAQ

What do I need to prepare?
Just fill in the booking form: grade, interests, target hackathons, past projects, and where you’re stuck. Henry will review it beforehand.

Can students book for themselves?
Yes. Either the student or a parent can fill in the booking form.

How long does a session take?
Usually 1 to 2 hours is enough to sort things out.

What if I have more questions afterwards?
After the session, we add each other on WeChat. You can ask anytime, and follow-up Q&A doesn’t count toward the session time.

If it sounds like a fit, fill in the booking form — Henry reads it first, then you find a time to talk.

MCP server (for AI assistants)

Hack123 runs a read-only remote MCP server (Streamable HTTP, no auth) at https://hack123.henryht.sh/api/mcp. Add this URL in any client that supports remote MCP servers (Claude, Cursor, etc.). Tools: search_hackathons (keyword, city, online, theme, date range, status), get_hackathon (by slug), search_team_posts (team-up posts), search_works (projects by hackathon or tag). Results are bilingual (zh/en) and include site URLs.

{"mcpServers": {"hack123": {"url": "https://hack123.henryht.sh/api/mcp"}}}

How tags work

Audience: Open to all / Students (current students or recent graduates) / Youth (has an age limit) / Women / Professionals (explicitly excludes students).

Level: Beginner-friendly = the organizer says no experience needed, no-code or non-technical friendly; Advanced = requires a launched product, production-grade delivery, research-level or enterprise challenges; everything else is Intermediate.

Quick filters: Students = audience is students or youth; Professionals = open to all or professionals; Founders = startup/incubation theme, or rewards include incubation, investment or equity; Beginners = beginner-friendly; Prize ¥100k+ = cash prize worth at least CNY 100,000; China / International = by host location (online events by organizer’s location). Filters can be combined.

Sorting: by default by deadline — open (soonest first), date TBA, then closed (most recent first), computed on the day you open the page. You can also sort by recently added or highest prize.

Prize: the number shown is the headline cash figure (total pool or first prize) in the original currency. The prize slider converts foreign currencies to CNY at the build-day rate, for filtering only. Compute credits, points and incubation are only mentioned in text.

Map: in-person hackathons are placed at the host city; online ones are estimated at the organizer’s city and shown as hollow dots. The map draws land dots only, no borders.

Deadline: the last actionable date — registration deadline first, then submission deadline, then the event date. Left blank if the organizer didn’t say.

Tags the organizer didn’t state are left blank — we don’t guess.

For AI assistants and crawlers

A machine-readable index of all hackathons and projects is available at /llms.txt, and the sitemap at /sitemap-index.xml.

About me · Henry

Podcast: “Tanji Mama” (碳基妈妈) vol15, in Chinese