The 2016 Dragon Boat Festival will be held in Yicahng next month and the opening ceremony is scheduled on the morning of June 8 at Zigui County, the hometown of Qu Yuan (a great patriotic poet of ancient China). On May 11, the press conference was held by the Provincial Government Information Office in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province and some news about the cultural festival were released by Provincial Department of Culture and provincial government. Hu Xumin, vice inspector of Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics, Wang Yinghua, deputy mayor of the municipal government and many other officials presented at the press conference.

More than fifty mainstream media from Xinhua News Agency, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, and the Central People's Broadcasting Station, China News Agency, China Daily and many famous reporters from the mainstream news agency in China all took part in the meeting.

The cultural festival will last one month this year. With “Dragon Boat Festival in China and Poetry in Yichang” as its theme, the cultural festival involves in 6 colorful parts with different theme in each one, including the ceremony in Zigui County, the series of activities of “Poetry in Yichang”, the series activities of dragon boat, the experience activity of traditional customs, tourism and cultural exchange activities between China and South Korea, cultural festival cuisine. The public will be able to enjoy an especially unique “cultural feast” of Dragon Boat Festival by the activities mentioned above.  

The Dragon Boat Cultural Festival this year is distinctive and diversified. The gorgeous ritual and etiquette of sacrifice culture in the State of Chu(an ancient Chinese states) will be reproduced in the opening ceremony. Apart from this, the activities in the process will demonstrate the traditional characteristics of the festival, highlight the inheritance and exchange of the "intangible cultural heritage" and stress the participation of the masses. Focusing on thrift, pragmatism and high efficiency, the entire process of the opening ceremony is less than one hour.  

The Dragon Boat Festival is a human intangible cultural heritage approved by UNESCO. Three Dragon Boat Cultural Festivals in Quyuan’s Hometown have been held in Yichang by the Department of Culture and the provincial government since 2009.  (Reporter Huang Chunmei)