All the teams get ready for the dragon boat race in last year's competition. [Photo/WeChat account: taicangdaily]

Taicang is to host a dragon boat race on June 15 to mark the upcoming traditional Chinese holiday – the Dragon Boat Festival.

The competition is organized by Chengxiang town, honored as a "Happy Town of China".

A total of 20 teams have signed up for the competition, which are mainly from local public institutions and foreign-invested companies.

Four out of the 20 teams come from outside of Taicang, including AU Optronics Corp's subsidiaries in Suzhou and Kunshan, a county-level city near Taicang, and Yichun Chamber of Commerce in Suzhou.

At last year's competition, the Suzhou teams, AU Optronics Co and, the Yichun Chamber of Commerce in Suzhou, ranked top two in the preliminary round.

However, the Suzhou AU Optronics Co team lost to the Taicang Public Security Bureau team in last year's final.

Chengxiang town has organized the dragon boat race since 2009, which now has become one of Taicang's most popular activities during the Dragon Boat Festival.

The Dragon Boat Festival, in memory of the ancient reformist and poet Qu Yuan, who lived in China's Warring States Period (475-221 BC), falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, and is a day that features dragon boat races, as well as eating zongzi, a type of rice dumpling.