At 3pm the races started. They were really fun to watch. The races were set up on the canal between two bridges about 300 meters apart. We found some covered benches right at the end of the race. It wasn’t crowded at all when they started. There were two types of boats that they raced. The smaller type had spots for twelve rowers (six on each side), a steerer in the back, and then a person who calls out the strokes in the front. When they get close to the finish line, the caller in front turns around and leans forward at the end of the boat. There is a flag there at the end and the first team to grab the flag is the one who wins. So even if you are in the fastest boat, if the caller misses the flag, then your team loses. The bigger boats have spots for 18 rowers, a steerer in back, and a drummer. The drummer beats a drum to help the rowers know the right time for their strokes. Those boats have a big dragon head on the front, so instead of someone grabbing a flag, the first boat across the finish line is the winner. It was interesting to watch the winners and losers from the races. In almost all cases, they had the same reaction when the race was over. I think I only ever saw one team actually cheer or celebrate when they won the race. I am not sure why they generally don’t do that, perhaps they do not want the losing team to feel bad?
The dragon boat races have a history dating back to 300 BC. At that time there was a poet and high ranking official named Qu Yuan who lived in the Chu Kingdom. At that time the Kingdom of Zhou was attacking the other kingdoms and the King of Chu allied with the King of Qin. Qu Yuan opposed the partnership and spoke out about it. For that he was banished. He wrote a lot of patriotic poems about the Chu Kingdom during his banishment. Almost 30 years later, the Kingdom of Qin took over the Kingdom of Chu. On the day that they took over the Chu capital, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in a lake. The people in the village where he lived loved him so much that they got in their boats and raced out to save him. This is where the dragon boat races started. Unfortunately, there were not able to find his body. So they dropped balls or rice into the lake so the fish would eat the rice instead of his body. This is where the zhongzi (rice wrapped in bamboo leaves) started.
At first we were thinking we would watch the races from 3 until 7:30 when the opening ceremony was scheduled to begin. There were lots of food carts set up along the street so we got some food for the kids and were just about to pick out things for me and Rebecca. However, at around 4:30 it started raining pretty heavily. They don’t do the races in the heavy rain, so we just sat there until about 5 or so. The rain was looking like it would lighten up, so we decided to just head home then. That way Rebecca and I could get something yummy to eat closer to our apartment. There was a bus stop right next to the races so we were able to catch that instead of having to walk the 2 miles home in the rain.
All ready for the rainy day.
A few of the temples and other sites in the old town area.
A cemetery.
In this area we saw a few of these streetside oyster "factories". It was just a group of about 10 ladies sitting around a tarp with thousands of oysters on it. They would just open them one by one and place the oysters in one spot and the shells in these baskets behind them.
The dragon boat races. These are the smaller boats and the larger boats are below.
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