Dear Friends,
The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is coming, we wish you and your family HAPPY DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL!
Dragon Boat Festival (June 12, 2013) is a traditional Chinese festival on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. On this day, people will eat Zong Zi, do dragon boat racing, and drink the Realgar wine to commemorate patriotic Qu Yuan…We sincerely hope you enjoy yourselves in this grand festival!
Best Way to Celebrate Dragon Boat Festival
A Yangtze cruise will take to visit Zigui County, hometown of Quyuan along Yangtze River, absorbing the Chinese festival atmosphere and giving you the best cruise experience.
Yangtze Explorer (Yangzi Explorer): Dragon Boat Festival Sailings
Sailing dates for this special activity: 6-9 June; & 9-13 June, 2013
What’s more, a longer China tour package with Yangtze River cruise will take to see more, learn more, do more and get more! Would you like to join us in this grand festival?
Legend of the Dragon Boat Festival’s Origin
Qu Yuan is an intelligent man served as a minister in Warring States Period. He was loved by the common people. He had different ideas from other officials on politics, so he earned more and more envy and anger of other officials. In the end, Qu Yuan was exiled for several years. On hearing that his country was defeated, he fell into despair and threw himself into the Miluo River.
As he was so loved by the people, on hearing this news, the local people took their boats trying to retrieve his corpse. They also threw Zong Zi into the river to feed fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan’s body.
So, eating Zongzi and the dragon boat racing are two activities to commemorate the great man Qu Yuan.
How much do you know Zigui, Hometown of Quyuan?
Zigui is rich in ancient culture and is the birthplace of the Dragon Boat Festival and dragon boat race. Zigui is the hometown of Qu Yuan, and for centuries, on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month each year, people in Zigui would hold a grand Dragon Boat Race to commemorate Qu Yuan.
Location of Zigui County:
Zigui is located around one kilometer away from the Three Gorges Dam (The original town of Zigui located at the exit of the Xiling Gorge, but was then submerged under the water due to the water storage of the Three Gorges Dam project). What tourists see today is the newly-built town.
Zigui provides access to some superlative local attractions: to the west is the Lesser Three Gorges; to the east is the Three Gorges Dam and Gezhouba Dam; to the north is the Former Residence of Wang Zhaojun in Baoping town and the Shennongjia Nature Reserve, which keeps the wildest scenery in the province.
Highlights of Zigui County:
Located in Zigui county in Hubei province, the Qu Yuan Memorial in Zigui is a memorial of Chinese historical figures. It was opened to the public in 1981.
There are two floors of exhibition halls — the second floor displays more than 800 unearthed relics in the county, such as ancient daggers, spears and swords, the most precious of which is the sword of the King Goujian of Yue of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC); the first floor showcases cultural relics related to Qu Yuan, including the precious poetry Chu Ci (literally, poetry of the Kingdom of Chu), 500 sets of books collected by Qu Yuan, and over 300 calligraphic works and paintings of various dynasties collected by him.
If you have a chance to come to China in lunar May, don’t miss the festivity on this traditional festival – the Dragon Boat Festival.