Exhilarating dragon boat races were rolled out in several Chinese cities in the past weekend to celebrate the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival, warming up the festive atmosphere while encouraging the public to participate in sports.
Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Duanwu Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar to commemorate ancient Chinese patriotic poet Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC). The festival falls on May 31 this year.
In Huanggang City of central China's Hubei Province, a dragon boat race opened on Saturday, with 30 teams from the province splashing their oars in the water during the two-day event.
The race consists of three major events: 200-meter straight-course race, 500-meter straight-course race and an innovative dragon boat tug-of-war. Among them, the newly added tug-of-war is the biggest highlight, in which two groups of participants compete in the same boat, rowing at full strength towards opposite directions.
"I have been on the team for two years and have participated in many races. Dragon boat racing is a matter for all the people on the team. Each schoolmate coming on the boat is a member of our team, and everyone is responsible for each other, which is also the embodiment of team spirit," said Li Chengxi, a member of the dragon boat team of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan.
After two days of fierce competition, the top six in each event were awarded on Sunday.
Another dragon boat race took place in Yichun City of east China's Jiangxi Province, attracting 18 dragon boat teams with a total of 432 participants.
The race officially started at 08:00. Amid the exciting drumbeats, the contestants swung their oars in unison, rushing towards the finish line with all the strength.
"We are all dragon boat lovers. We started training at 18:00 or 19:00 every day after getting off work since a month ago, just to show our fighting spirit and love for dragon boat," said Tang Shaowei, a participant of the dragon boat race.
The event adopts a 500-meter straight-course traditional race for 22-person standard dragon boats, which is highly entertaining, attracting tens of thousands of spectators.
The onlookers at the river banks roared in cheering to make the atmosphere more exciting.
"We supporters of the Xicun team arrived at 04:00. When I stood at the finish line and saw our Xicun dragon boat hit the line, I was very excited, my eyes filled with tears, and I was filled with passion," said Shu Hong, a local dragon boat enthusiast.
Dragon boat races held in Hubei, Jiangxi to heat up for Duanwu Festival
