"Water Formula 1" dragon boat drift race in Foshan draws massive crowd

The L-bend section of the 2026 Diejiao Dragon Boat Drift Race, often called "Formula 1 on water", took place Saturday in Foshan, Guangdong Province, drawing tens of thousands of spectators and setting a new record.

Diejiao in Foshan hosts the annual dragon boat race during the Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu), which fell on Friday this year, along its narrow and winding river.

Among the four race zones of the drift race, the L-bend in Shengtang Village stands out as the most challenging, with its 650-meter course lined by sharp right-angle bends and hidden reefs.

A dragon boat team from New Zealand gave a demonstration performance before 19 local teams took to the water for intense competition.

Unlike regular straight-line dragon boat races, the drift race demands well-paced speed and precise steering.

"I'm from Nanchang City of Jiangxi Province, where we race dragon boats on the Ganjiang River. It wasn't until I came to Foshan that I realized dragon boat races can be held in narrow waterways, which really puts the paddlers' skills to the test," said Chen, a tourist. After nearly two hours of fierce competition, Jiaobian Village’s dragon boat team clinched victory with a time of 2 minutes 47.62 seconds, breaking the race zone’s 15-year record.

Ceremonies worshiping Fuxi, a mythical ancestor of the Chinese nation, took place simultaneously in the city of Tianshui, northwest China's Gansu Province and in the New Taipei City of China's Taiwan region on Sunday.

It's the 13th consecutive year that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have paid tribute to Fuxi.

Fuxi is widely seen as a key ancestral figure of the entire Chinese nation, and ceremonies honoring him carry on a shared cultural memory, spiritual heritage, and emotional identity.

The annual commemoration of Fuxi has a history of more than 2,000 years. It was listed as a form of national intangible cultural heritage in 2006.