Dragon boats thunder through Hong Kong waters to mark ancient Chinese festival

HONG KONG (AP) - Throngs of people flocked to southern Hong Kong on Saturday to watch the iconic dragon boat races, a highlight of a Chinese festival with over 2,000 years of history.

Following their drummers' rhythm, crews powered their dragon boats through the water in unison, racing to become the first to reach the finish line. Residents and tourists cheered for them.

The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as "Tuen Ng" in Cantonese, is linked to various legends. But the most well-known story is about commemorating a patriotic and righteous official in ancient times who drowned himself after falling out of favor with his leader and seeing his kingdom decline.

According to the lore, villagers rushed out to the river with boats to search for his body, and threw rice dumplings into the river to prevent fish from eating it. Hence, dragon boating and eating rice dumplings have become the festival’s traditions.

The festival is also celebrated in mainland China and Taiwan, alongside countries like Singapore and Malaysia that have a large Chinese diaspora. Residents gathered to watch dragon boat races held along the northern section of the Grand Canal in Tongzhou, on the outskirts of Beijing.

In Hong Kong, a standard boat seats 20 paddlers.

The government previously estimated that about 380,000 mainland Chinese tourists would visit the city during a three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday break starting Saturday, marking a 16% increase in daily average visitor arrivals.