On the afternoon of June 5, the team from ECNU won the championship of the 9th Shanghai International Students Dragon Boat Race.
ECNU international students take part in the annual dragon boat festival.
To celebrate the annual Dragon Boat Festival, Shanghai has held International Students Dragon Boat Race for the 8 years. This year, the race was held on the Fengxin Campus of East China University of Science and Technology. Teams from 32 local universities and colleges took part in the race.
The annual dragon boat race has been very popular among overseas students in Shanghai. Members of the ECNU dragon boat team were selected from more than 5,000 overseas students from over 100 countries.
ECNU team wins the race.
Besides participating in the Dragon Boat Race, the overseas students of ECNU also tried making Zongzi, a glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, and other folk customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, which fell on June 9 this year.
On June 10, with the invitation of Sports Bureau of Putuo District, some ECNU overseas students came to Mengqing Park to join a Dragon Boat Festival party with the local people. During the party, they made Zongzi with the direction of local older ladies, drank rice wine, and found many delicate folk arts and crafts related with the festival.
Some international students make Dongzi to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.
Falling on the 5th day of the 5th month according to Chinese lunar calendar, the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, is an important festival in China. It has been held annually for more than 2,000 years to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC) and also acts as a chance for Chinese people to build their bodies and dispel diseases.
Overseas students find some folk crafts and drink rive wine at the party.
Many traditional customs and activities are held on the specified day by people in China and even by some people in neighboring countries. Among these customs are dragon boat racing, eating Zongzi, wearing a perfume pouch, tying five-color silk thread and hanging mugwort leaves and calamus.
