Dragon Boat Festival is one of the most important traditional festivals in China.

This festival is a cheerful occasion, for on this day-the fifth day of the fifth lunar month- Chinese people would have a series of celebration. 

One of the celebrating activities is the Dragon Boat race. 

This race, which is similar to the Olympic row boat race, would be held on the biggest river of each town. 

A lot of dragon boats would compete against each other to reach the destination for winning prize money. 

There are usually 23 crew members on each dragon boat, including 20 sailors and one leader, one drummer and one man for the gong. 

After a great many firecracker sounds, the race begins.

Sailors on each boat, who have all been professional trained, would row perfectly together and as fast as they could.

The racing distance would no longer than 1 kilometer.

After race, not only would the crew of the winning boat be offered a huge sums of money, but also the others would be prized with money in various degrees. 

Apart from the boat race, there are some foods prepared for the festival: Dragon Boat rices and Zongzi.

The Dragon Boat rices is a delicious dish cooked for the crew who have been joining the race, it consists of rices, dried shrimps, preserved meat and other ingredients. 

Meanwhile, Zongzi is said to be made for the fish living under water. Because Dragon Boat Festival is in memory of a great poet in ancient China named Quyuan. 

He was not only the greatest Chinese poet lived in 300 B.C., but also a famous social reformer who tried his best to make people live better. 

Unfortunately, because of the reform, Quyuan had been slandered by the aristocrat. 

This lead to a suicide by drowning himself in a river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. 

To avoid Quyuan’s body being eaten by fish, people made lots of Zongzi and threw them into the water to feed fish. 

Therefore, Zongzi was not made for human at the beginning, but for fish only. 

However, on present days, both Dragon boat rices and Zongzi are not simply for the festival, they have already become common foods in daily life. We are able to eat them whenever we want. 

And the Dragon Boat Race is not only held for festival either, it has become an international race as well. 

An international Dragon Boat race would be held once a year in Switzerland. 

In 2019, a team sent by my city won the championship for the third time. As a matter of fact, they have won it three times in a row.