The 2021 China Sports Culture Expo and China Sports Tourism Expo (CSCTE) took place in Guangzhou from November 26 to 28, and “Duanwu” dragon boat regatta of Jinji Lake was selected as one of the fine festive projects of this year to represent Chinese sports culture.

Fine projects of Chinese sports culture

The effort to recommend and choose the best projects of Chinese sports culture started in 2020 and it has become one of the important items on the agenda of CSCTE when CSCTE is held. Such efforts aim to promote and carry on the fine traditional sports culture of China, discover and develop the representative projects of Chinese sports culture with their own respective characteristics concerning one certain Chinese festival, folk custom, or ethnic group. To better protect, spread, innovate and develop the traditional sports culture of China has become the main theme of CSCTE each year.  

CSCTE of this year received a total of 308 candidate projects from 21 provinces including provincial level autonomous regions and municipalities. After evaluation and comparison, 39 projects stood out as winners in the whole country, among which, 12 were festive activities, 19 presented the folk customs and 8 conveyed the special culture of the ethnic groups they belonged to.

“Duanwu” dragon boat racing of Jinji Lake

Since 2010, when “Duanwu” dragon boat racing of Jinji Lake made its debut, the annual event has been successfully hosted by SIP 12 times.

◆ 2010 Proposal was turned into reality and the first Racing was organized.

◆2012 The Racing was incorporated into “Shared Joy in Jiangsu” serial activities, a provincial platform.  

◆ With the entry of the teams made up of expatriates into the Racing, the event played an increasingly important role in international exchange.  

◆ 2016-2017 The number of participating athletes reached one thousand and that of the audiences exceeded fifty thousand.

◆ 2018-2019 The Racing always sought innovation and new breakthrough in all aspects, continuously improving and developing its competition rules and schedule arrangement in the direction towards a national scale. As a result of the efforts in creating upon interacting, and integrating of tradition and innovation, as well as the combination of the ordinary physical exercises and professional sports competition to better attract a wider range of participants and viewers, the Racing has been regarded as a good opportunity to showcase Chinese and foreign cultures and boost the communication between them.     

◆ 2020 Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the organizing committee turned to live-streaming of the event to make it accessible to more audiences. The new channel brought tens of millions of visits for the Racing.

As one of the three best-known sports competitions associated with the name of “Jinji Lake”, “Duanwu” dragon boat racing of Jinji Lake has made more people understand and love Jinji Lake, this vibrant land in SIP, dragon boat regatta, the traditional folk activity inherited from the past generations, and “Duanwu” Festival, the world intangible cultural heritage with strong Chinese elements. “Duanwu” dragon boat racing has also helped to bring the “Jiangnan” culture to the rest regions across China and even to the international arena. We have good reasons to believe the dragon boat racing of next year will be much more absorbing and the Jinji Lake surely more attractive at that time.