This was meant to appear last week as the final post as my series on Guizhou, but then I went to Richmond and forgot the charger to my laptop. So without further ado, the dragons and dragon boats of Shibing, Guizhou:
Fighting dragons as part of the Dragon Boat Festival in Shibing, Guizhou.
Theundisputed highlight of our trip — a visit to the tiny town of Shibing for the Dragon Boat Festival — initially seemed like a horrible mistake. Bad advice brought us there a day early, so we spent a day wandering through the markets and drinking cheap bubble tea. But the next morning, our waiting paid off. The day started off with a complicated dance-and-fight between two long, colorful dragon puppets who twisted, coiled and twirled around the town square, much to the delight of the children and adults in attendance. After the dance ended, everyone headed for the river shore to watch the dragon boats race. I’ll be honest, this was a little anticlimactic after the excitement of the puppet performance. But it was fun to watch the crowds — and especially the children — cheer on the rowers.
A few shots from the day:
The puppeteers, encircled by dragon.
Local women wait with the crowds for the dragon boat races to start.
A racing dragon boat, complete with a drum to keep the rhythm.
Who loves dragon boats? This kid loves dragon boats! He was using a long balloon to pretend to row along with the racers.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
What colorful photos! Sounds like a great festival to attend. I just stumbled upon a street festival last night in Barcelona and those customs and costumes you find behind them, are so powerful to the memory.
Those are lovely pictures! I live in Okinawa, which shares many Chinese traditions including dragon boat racing… attending the festival is one of our favorite experiences every year. Do the rowers chant while they’re racing? They do in Oki and it’s very exciting to watch.
I like your blog, the pictures are fantastically taken!