Dragon Boat Race in Naning is a favorite activity on the festive calendar. Since 1934, local newspapers have reported such a race. After 1949, it became a traditional sport and grows in popularity every year.
The Dragon Boat Festival, which has been observed over a period of more than 2,300 years in China, derives from the death of Qu Yuan, an eminent poet living in Chu State (currently central China's Hubei and Hunan provinces) during the Warring States (475 BC-221 BC).
Historical records show that when the disillusioned Qu Yuan drowned himself in the local river on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, local residents raced to the site in boats to search for him. They made loud noise to scare away fish and dropped rice dumplings into the water to lure them away from Qu's body.
Ever since then, people have marked the anniversary of Qu's death on by racing dragon boats, eating "Zongzi" -- rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves -- and hanging wormwood around their homes.
