Yesterday was the Dragonboat Festival in Hong Kong. Our little community on Lantau Island holds one of the races, and our church has a team called "The Ripple Effect." Jon and I have both rowed. The first year we were here, he rowed on a very competitive team. Last year I rowed on The Ripple Effect (a not so competitive team :) And this year it was Jon's turn again.
This is the view out of our friend's Martin and Sandy's flat. On a clear day (which unfortunately isn't very often) Hong Kong Island and Central are right there, but you can't see the skyline in this photo. You can see the DB Ferry which takes us to Central, and in the bottom right hand corner you can see the 6 dragonboats racing. We have been having really heavy rains involving landslides and flooding, so yesterday we were just happy to have smaller amounts of rain for the festival.
Each Dragonboat seats 20 rowers. The front is decorated with a dragon. There is a drum in the front where one person sits and drums the beat that everyone rows to. It's essential in dragonboating for the rowing to be synchronized. The man in the back "drives" the boat with the rudder.
Tall white guy...that's our rower!
Fans cheer on their teams on the beach. The boats load up on the beach and then they row out to the far flags. Once all the boats are there and ready, they fire the gun and the drums and rowing begin.
Racing to the finish line.
Sandy's enjoying the best part of the race...the Krispy Kreme donuts afterwards! 
1 comments:
How cool, Retta! I know you are anxious to go back home to your family, but I am sure you will really miss these kind of events! When are you coming back to the U.S.?
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