Dragon Boat Carnival

One of the most unique sports we have come across here in Hong Kong is Dragon Boat Racing. It is similar in many ways to crew but with a drummer keeping tempo and a stand-up oarsman steering from the rear. There are 11 to 18 paddlers in each dragon boat, and, of course, the front and rear of each boat display the head and tail of a dragon.


We saw a few of the individual town and district races last year, but we were out of town for the bigger events. This time I was able to catch the big event on Victoria Harbor. The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival is a free event that takes place over five days. The afternoon I attended they were holding the women's races.

The course is set up on the Kowloon side of the harbor just past the Avenue of the Stars. Barges are set up to keep the course safe from harbor traffic and the waterfront is brightly decorated.

The festival has grown over the years and this year's 8th annual had teams competing from countries far and wide. Of course Hong Kong was well represented as was Australia, the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Great Britain and the US. There were also teams from Dubai and Hungary getting revved up as I entered.

The course is set up so that teams start with the boats touching the start platform. Once the horn sounds you hear the start of the drum beats. The boats pull away from the platform and the race is on. I discovered that like in horse racing the boat who takes the lead is not always the fastest in the long run. What started out looking like blow away races usually became very tight by the end. One race was won by a snout (they are dragons after all).

By the time the race has finished the next teams are already lining up. I must admit it is some of the best organization I have seen. The boats just finishing paddle their way back to the holding area and the next race is off and paddling.

To keep the carnival atmosphere going, there were pop-up parades, mascots and even a balloon dragon boat roaming about.

The last race that I saw that afternoon was a very special one. Each member of every team was a breast cancer survivor. It was truly inspiring to see so many women who have gone through so much showing support for those still battling this terrible disease.

As I took a shot of an Australian team celebrating their win, a soft rain began to fall. I headed off to catch a ferry back to Hong Kong Island, but along the way I managed to find some others enjoying the water in their own unique way.