Dragon Boat Festival marked across China with traditional boat races

The Dragon Boat Festival was celebrated Friday across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan with colorful boat races, lion dances and other festivities (Source: Photo by AP)

The more than 2,000-year-old festival is best known for its sporting events, but its origins are rooted in Chinese history and ancient beliefs about health, protection and harmony with nature (Source: Photo by AP)

The festival is widely associated with the ancient poet Qu Yuan, who according to legend drowned himself more than 2,000 years ago (Source: Photo by AP)

The tradition of dragon boat races was born from the story that people raced out in boats to search for the poet and threw rice into the river so fish would not eat his body (Source: Photo by AP)

A three-day race in Beijing features men’s, women’s and mixed dragon boat races over distances of 100, 200 and 500 meters (Source: Photo by AP)

Teams from Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Guangdong compete throughout the holiday weekend (Source: Photo by AP)

Guided by the thunderous beat of their drummers, crews pulled their paddles through the water in unison, each boat surging toward the finish line as spectators cheered them on (Source: Photo by AP)

Others watch the races at home as they enjoyed a traditional sticky rice treat known as “zongzi” with their families (Source: Photo by AP)

Beijing’s 2026 celebrations will continue through June 21 at the capital’s Grand Canal (Source: Photo by AP)

Participants in Hong Kong’s dragon boat races on Friday wore costumes including a cartoon version of Chinese Taoist deity Ne Zha (Source: Photo by AP)