Opening Ceremonies of Zhongshan (Shiqi) Leisure Tourism Culture Festival and Dragon Boat Race Successfully Held

This year, the opening ceremony of the festival and the Dragon Boat Race were held in Dragon Boat Park. With a history of over 3,000 years, dragon boat racing is an important part of the Dragon Boat Festival, which first originated from the ritual activities of ancient times to worship the water god or dragon god. In 2012, Shiqi Dragon Boat Race was successfully listed as  a provincial non-material heritage. Highlights of the opening ceremony-Dragon Boat Festival theme stage play and Dragon Boat Race- are not to be  missed. On the Dragon Boat Festival theme stage performance, dancers wearing traditional Han clothing elaborated for the crowd  on the long history of the Dragon Boat Festival with poetry , narration and the music of an instrument known as the Guqin; while for the magnificent Dragon Boat Race in Qijiang River, we could see the scene of dragon boat waves and athletes’ striving to win the race. It is worth mentioning that the Dragon Boat culture theme park in the vicinity of the opening ceremony has also been put into use. The dragon boat race and its resounding gongs and drums  really fired up the crowd. A d ragon and lion dance was also held in the Festival,  people could feel the exciting charm of the magnificent traditional culture. The characteristic cannon firing is a part of the Festival that you cannot miss, with the first shot for peace, second for luckiness and third for long-lasting happiness. In addition,  a concert celebrating the 119th birthday of Lv Wencheng, a famous composer/ musician from Guangdong was held at night at the pedestrian street under the temple. There were also other very popular activities at the Festival.