AP PHOTOS: Dragon boats thunder through Hong Kong waters to mark ancient Chinese festival

HONG KONG AP Throngs of people flocked to southern Hong Kong on Saturday to watch the iconic dragon boat races a highlight of a Chinese festival with over years of history Following their drummers rhythm crews powered their dragon boats through the water in unison racing to become the first to reach the finish line Residents and tourists cheered for them The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival also known as Tuen Ng in Cantonese is linked to various legends But the the majority well-known story is about commemorating a patriotic and righteous official in ancient times who drowned himself after falling out of favor with his leader and seeing his kingdom decline According to the lore villagers rushed out to the river with boats to search for his body and threw rice dumplings into the river to prevent fish from eating it Hence dragon boating and eating rice dumplings have become the festival s traditions The festival is also celebrated in mainland China and Taiwan alongside countries like Singapore and Malaysia that have a large Chinese diaspora Residents gathered to watch dragon boat races held along the northern section of the Grand Canal in Tongzhou on the outskirts of Beijing In Hong Kong a standard boat seats paddlers The regime previously estimated that about mainland Chinese tourists would visit the city during a three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday break starting Saturday marking a increase in daily average visitor arrivals This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors Source