Dragon boat races, dumplings, and folk customs … The festive atmosphere around the Dragon Boat Festival is getting stronger and stronger.

CCTV News:On May 24th, 2025, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Maozhou River Dragon Boat Race started.

This dragon boat race is the first provincial dragon boat race in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area this year. There are 24 professional teams from Greater Bay Area, which are divided into three groups: Bay Area Men’s Team, Bay Area Women’s Team and Shenzhen Team. After two hours of fierce competition, the Chenpi Dragon Boat Team of Hongdatang, Xinhui, Jiangmen, the Hong Kong, China Women’s Dragon Boat Team and the Xiayong Jiangxia Huang Dragon Boat Team of Yanluotang won the first place in each group respectively.

Tongxiang, Zhejiang: Dragon Boat Race, Visiting the Market, Colorful Folk Customs and Celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival

On the 24th, in Tongxiang City, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, citizens gathered at the bank of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to watch the dragon boat race and experience the folklore of the Dragon Boat Festival.

At 10 o’clock in the morning, more than 10 beautifully decorated dragon boats are ready to go in the Chongfu section of Tongxiang of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. As the drums sounded, the dragon boats split the waves in pairs on the water. Dragon boat race on the river, the oars flying over, the team members joined forces to paddle in the drums and applause, bravely competing for the first place.

There are not only dragon boat races, but also folk cultural projects such as fish lantern performances, canal encouragement and lion dance performances. In Beitangzhi Street beside the Grand Canal, tourists visit the Song Yun Market, have a long table feast on the Dragon Boat Festival and experience interactive games. The colorful traditional Dragon Boat Festival folk customs are deeply loved by everyone.

Shiqian, Guizhou: skillfully making tea-scented sister dumplings to convey neighborhood feelings

In Xinhua Village, Shiqian County, Tongren County, Guizhou Province, villagers are working together in Qi Xin to make tea-scented sister zongzi with unique local characteristics, so that the thick zongzi fragrance is intertwined with the neighborhood.

Early in the morning, the villagers in Xinhua Village of Wude Town were busy. Pick the fresh leaves of the day, wash and dry them, prepare local glutinous rice, chestnut, straw and other materials, and wrap the sister dumplings according to the method passed down by the older generation. First, fold the leaves into a funnel shape, add stuffing such as glutinous rice and chestnut, and wrap them into triangular dumplings. Then, take a small piece of rice dumpling leaves and repeat the above steps. Place the small triangular rice dumpling next to the big triangular rice dumpling, cover it with the same rice dumpling leaf, and finally tie it tightly with straw, and a sister rice dumpling with unique shape will be completed.

Later, the villagers set up firewood and started to cook the sister dumplings with iron cooking utensils, which took two and a half hours. The secret of the unique flavor of sister zongzi lies in putting in the newly picked moss tea in that year. Under the slow stew of firewood, the fragrance of moss tea blends with the fragrance of zongzi, emitting an attractive aroma.

In Xinhua Village, Bao Sisters Zongzi is not only a food production and cultural heritage, but also a bond of neighborhood friendship. When a pot of steaming tea-scented sister dumplings comes out of the pot, the villagers will distribute them to their neighbors and relatives to share the joy and warmth of this festival.

Changning, Yunnan: The special zongzi "Xiang" is about the unique and popular flavor of the Dragon Boat Festival.

In Changning County, Baoshan City, Yunnan Province, there are many kinds of special zongzi, such as tea zongzi, alkaline zongzi and ham zongzi, which satisfy the taste buds of different diners with their unique flavors.

Early in the morning, Shaojuan, a tea farmer, began to select local high-quality old-tree black tea, boil a reddish-brown tea soup, let it cool, and then pour it into the washed glutinous rice. After the glutinous rice was soaked, everyone sat around and wrapped zongzi, and then cooked it with a big fire. Soon, the angular and fragrant tea zongzi were freshly baked.

In addition to tea dumplings, alkaline dumplings are also deeply loved by local people. This kind of zongzi is made by burning corn stalks into ash, adding boiling water and filtering to make alkaline water. Then, the glutinous rice and alkaline water are mixed and soaked for 5 to 6 hours to color and enhance the fragrance of the glutinous rice. After the dumplings are wrapped in alkaline water, they need to be cooked for about 4 hours on high fire, and the taste is the best.

When wrapping rice dumplings with alkaline water, local people will also add ham produced in Yunnan to make a unique ham dumpling. After eating it in one bite, the salty flavor of ham and the sweetness of glutinous rice will be perfectly integrated, and the lips and teeth will remain fragrant.

Kunming, Yunnan: All kinds of zongzi are freshly listed, packaged and sold with old flavor.

In the major farmers’ markets in Kunming, Yunnan Province, all kinds of special zongzi are on the market, especially the dumplings now packaged are very popular.

In this large-scale farmer’s market in Kunming, the Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi has entered a hot-selling period, and the special Zongzi from Kunming, Honghe and Xishuangbanna have been placed in the obvious position of the stalls.

After shopping around, this zongzi from Guizhou also attracted many consumers to buy it. The boss said that this time he brought more than a dozen kinds of zongzi, all of which were sent from Guizhou, focusing on characteristics and freshness.

Zongzi with various new flavors has become the darling of the market, but many people still like the old flavor of being packaged and sold now.

There are people who buy finished zongzi, but some consumers still like to buy zongzi leaves and materials to wrap at home, so that the Dragon Boat Festival zongzi is full of home flavor.