Today (Monday) is a national holiday in China and as I write this, fireworks are going off and everyone is happy (including me) that we don't have to go to work or school today. The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday during which people race dragon boats or watch dragon boat races and eat rice dumplings. I asked many students if they were going to see some races but nobody I talked to was actually going to watch. It seems most everyone prefers to stay at home, gorge themselves on rice dumplings and alcohol and watch some of the races on TV.
Unfortunately, I haven't seen a dragon boat race either but I've been watching them all day on TV. It's kind of like crew/rowing except that two rows of people sit in a boat that looks like a dragon and each person only has one paddle to use on one side. There is a person in the front of the boat who bangs a loud drum to signal the rhythm of the paddlers. Some of the races require the boats to make turns which requires some skillful maneuvering - it's actually quite an interesting spectacle to watch even if it's just on a television screen. Happy Dragon Boat Festival!
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