The day of the "Dragon Boat Festival"

It was the “Dragon Boat festival or Duanwu” in China yesterday, and thereby a holiday for all of us. When we enquired with a few of our colleagues on its significance and how was it going to be celebrated in their homes, they explained that the most famous theory of its origin was that it is celebrated in the memory of one of their famous poets (I later googled and discovered his name as Qu Yuan - a patriotic poet who lived more than 2,000 years ago, and who according to legend, drowned himself in the Miluo River in Hunan Province to protest the then corrupt kingdom) and it is usually celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month in the lunar calendar. People eat zhongzi (a sticky/ glutinous rice ball wrapped in bamboo leaves), drink realgar wine and race dragon boats!

Zhongzi

From Pic courtesy:china.org.cn....

The legend behind the festival can be read here

All our excitement to watch the Dragon boat race on the Pearl River, from our riverside home dampened along with the continuous rain, when there were no races scheduled on that part of the river yesterday.Nevertheless we decided to step outside even though it was raining pretty heavily.

The water level in the river had risen considerably due to the incessant rain that has been lashing the city during the last couple of weeks combined with a possible release of water from the reservoir. As we walked beside the river we noticed a group of people with motley umbrellas gathered near the river-steps, which increased our curiosity too. Apparently, the high tide on the river had attracted a lot of enthusiastic people who had brought their pet dogs for a swim and lots of pet-owners too decided to jump in to enjoy the river. Most of the Golden Retrievers and Rottweilers seemed to be enthusiastic in jumping into the river and retrieving the empty water bottles and plastic slippers that their owners were using as baits. However, the much smaller poodles had a tough time trying to let their inconsiderate owners know their displeasure in such activities that were thrust upon them. It was a pity to watch these small dogs that were forced into the water, desperately trying to swim against the tide and reach the safety of the river bank and some shivering in fear of the water.

The Rains:

From Vani Menon....

People with their pets:

From Vani Menon....

Amidst all this, oblivious to these things happening around, there was a sweeper lady who was clearing away the riverside walkway quietly. It was raining heavily and she was undeterred on her task! She was happy to pose for our picture and acknowledged us with a happy “nihao”!

From Vani Menon....

We shopped around a while and had an early dinner at the Tiger Prawn, a Vietnamese restaurant. Just outside the restaurant in the mall is an indoor Ice-Rink. The vast rink had many skate enthusiasts practicing or learning. We watched some of them in action for a while, especially one of the young coaches there who was displaying his skills in ice-skating very well.

We ended the day with a movie in the theatre.. Yes! the first time we were watching a movie in a theatre in China!! We went to the Qinggong Cinema and watched one of the English movies that was being played there, Night at the Museum-2. The movie had a lot of attendance and I think most of them watched the movie since it had Chinese sub-titles while a vast majority could have been there because they understood English!