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Contestants sit in wooden tubs and try their best to row faster than the others just by hand. [Photo/zjgwenming.com.cn] |
With Duanwu Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival, around the corner on May 30, Chinese people are busy preparing zongzi, the traditional glutinous rice snack featuring the fresh smell of reed leaves and the scent of rice and meat.
Aside from the mouth-watering food, some people from the eastern port city of Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu province chose to celebrate the festival with wooden tub racing on May 18.
In groups of five, contestants sat in old-fashioned wooden tubs and tried their utmost to row faster just by hand.
A tradition mostly enjoyed among the Yangtze River Delta region, Zhangjiagang resident used to pick water chestnuts with these wooden tubs. Hence, the tubs are also nicknamed "water chestnut tubs".
This has been the third wooden tub race event in Zhangjiagang, a commemoration of the traditional Chinese festival and its generated culture, as well as a call for physical fitness and healthy life styles.