Dragon Boat Festival links modern China to traditions more than 2,000 years old

BEIJING (AP) — The Dragon Boat Festival was celebrated Friday across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan with colorful boat races, lion dances and other festivities.

The more than 2,000-year-old holiday is best known for its sporting events, but its origins are rooted in Chinese history and ancient beliefs about health, protection and harmony with nature.

“The Dragon Boat Festival is probably the richest and most diverse of all traditional Chinese festivals,” said Tsinghua University’s history professor Liu Xiaofeng. “Across different regions, people developed a wide variety of traditions based on ideas connected to the summer solstice and the balance of yin and yang.”

The festival is widely associated with the ancient poet Qu Yuan, who according to legend drowned himself more than 2,000 years ago. The tradition of dragon boat races was born from the story that people raced out in boats to search for the poet and threw rice into the river so fish would not eat his body.

A three-day race in Beijing features men’s, women’s and mixed dragon boat races over distances of 100, 200 and 500 meters. Teams from Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Guangdong will compete throughout the holiday weekend.

Guided by the thunderous beat of their drummers, crews pulled their paddles through the water in unison, each boat surging toward the finish line as spectators cheered them on.

Others watched the races at home as they enjoyed a traditional sticky rice treat known as “zongzi” with their families.

Beijing’s 2026 celebrations will continue through June 21 at the capital’s Grand Canal.

“The competition helped strengthen our team spirit,” said Li Maoshan, a participant in Friday’s races. “It also gave us an opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of perseverance and hard work.”

Participants in Hong Kong’s dragon boat races on Friday wore costumes including a cartoon version of Chinese Taoist deity Ne Zha.

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AP video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing and reporter Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

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