This weekend Hong Kong observed yet another bank holiday, this time in celebration of the Tuen Ng Festival. Also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, the holiday commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a poet and former Minister of the state of Chu in Imperial China, who made the ultimate protest against a corrupt government by drowning himself in the Mi Lo River in the province of Hunan. The story goes that local villagers raced their boats toward Qu Yuan in a vain attempt to save his life, beating the water with their oars and sounding drums and gongs to scare off the fish trying to eat him. This event occurred over 2000 years ago and ever since the Chinese have staged dragon boat races up and down the country's coast. 
We headed out to Stanley on HK Island's southern side to take in the contemporary version of dragon boat races which have become quite a corporate affair, with 20-person teams representing the city's multinational investment banks, law firms and corporations. Corporate yachts and party junks draped with corporate banners line the short competition course while everyone else, including us, view the races from the beach. There is also a Bay to Breakers element to the event as many teams dress up in crazy costumes. No nakedness though. The last B2B I went to I saw a man wearing nothing but a pair of Oakleys while playing an alto saxophone. We didn't see anything like that, Ingrid is safe for yet another day.
The races are a sprint lasting only a couple hundred meters as the contestants paddle furiously to the cadence of the bow drummer. The races last only a minute or so but the paddlers are completely gassed by the time they reach the finish line. As the weather was beastly hot and humid I figured their fatigue was an even tradeoff to being able to splash about in the refreshing water. It was a fun event, as was the post race block party along Stanley's boardwalk where the victors drank their spoils.
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