Folk activities held across China to celebrate Dragon Boat Festival

Rhythmic drumbeats echoed along riverbanks in cities across China on Friday, heralding the start of the annual Duanwu Festival. In various regions, communities marked the occasion with exhilarating dragon boat races, alongside lively folk performances and vibrant cultural heritage fairs, uniting people from all walks of life and blending ancient traditions with modern festivities.

The Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Festival, falling on Friday this year, is a major traditional Chinese festival, celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar to commemorate Qu Yuan, a renowned ancient patriotic poet during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

On the Haihe River of north China's Tianjin Municipality, 33 dragon boat teams, including university students, amateur enthusiasts and employees from foreign-funded enterprises, drove their paddles in thunderous drumbeats and cheers from spectators.

Along the adjacent creative block, a waterfront festival bazaar offered local snacks, intangible cultural heritage handicrafts, and souvenirs, merging the time-honored race with the city's trendy riverside lifestyle.

In Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, a bustling dragon boat race unfolded on the iconic Daming Lake, with slender dragon boats shuttling across the shimmering surface, framed by weeping willows and ancient bridges.

More than 3,600 meters above sea level, the Lhasa River hosted both a traditional dragon boat and a yak-leather boat race, with 10 and 20 teams participating respectively. Folk dances and interactive sports demonstrations accompanied the races, creating a plateau celebration infused with Tibetan flavor.

In Longquan County-level City in east China's Zhejiang Province, over a hundred master smiths raise heavy hammers to repeatedly fold and draw the billet, showcasing the nationally listed intangible cultural heritage of Longquan sword-making.

At the event site, visitors watched the forging up close, then browsed sword-themed cultural products and enjoyed other folk activities.

China's first batch of commercial real estate investment trusts (REITs) debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Thursday, which was expected to help better use commercial real estate resources to serve the real economy.

The four commercial REITs' underlying assets cover mature commercial formats such as commercial retail and office buildings, which are located in core areas of cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Xi'an and Harbin.

The listings could help the asset owners raise funds and promote asset-light operation, while the investors could indirectly hold commercial properties and obtain dividend incomes from operating revenues such as rents.