Guangdong Province in south China has been fully immersed in the enthusiasm for dragon boat racing as the Duanwu Festival approaches. In some places, competitions have ended successfully, and various pre-match trainings are in full swing in more regions.

The Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, falls on June 22 this year. It is celebrated with dragon boat racing, an intangible cultural heritage practiced nationwide. Sticky rice dumplings, or Zongzi, are eaten on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar Chinese calendar.

The 2023 Guangzhou International Dragon Boat Invitational Tournament kicked off on the Pearl River on Saturday, with 5,000 athletes from 125 dragon boat teams racing across the waves.

This year's tournament has set four events, including the 600-meter straight race for traditional dragon boats, the 600-meter straight race for 22-person dragon boat, and the fashion dragon boat parade.

At the same time, dragon boat teams in townships and villages of the province also discovered many novel and effective training methods based on local conditions.

In a village dragon boat team with 60 people in Gaobu Township of Dongguan City, team members use their spare time to train for four hours every day.

To reach the maximum speed, the movements of all team members must be uniform, and the depth of the oars into the water and the strength of each person must be well-controlled.

"In fact, we are mainly training the overall coordination and paddling techniques to achieve consistent movements and unity of strength, so as to integrate with the dragon boat," said dragon boat racer Huang Zhujun.

"Only by hard training can one demonstrate the strength. When your body is exhausted, you have to rely on willpower to move forward," said another racer Huang Zhenjiang

Coaches at the city's Shatian Township tied tires to the stern of the boat to carry out weight training to enhance the endurance and explosive power of rowers.

"It is all about weight training, a single tire is not that heavy, but it is very heavy when placed in the water. The faster you run, the greater its pulling force is," said Liang Jinshui, helmsman of the township's dragon boat team.

In the rural areas of Foshan City, local grassroots teams use confrontation training in their pursuit for the championship.

"The opposing sides in this exercise are tugging against each other, similar to a game of tug-of-war. Rowers are also required to move forward or backward while exerting their maximum strength, and the winner will only be determined when everyone use their maximum strength," said rower Pang Chaobin.

In some villages of Qingyuan City, local people also take advantage of irrigation ponds just a little bigger than dragon boats to carry out static training for upcoming competitions.