The "2016 China Dragon Boat Tournament (Yichang) sponsored by Daohuaxiang Group" was grandly opened in the water park in Longquan town of Yiling District. Twelve professional teams, from Hong Kong and Taiwan and ten provinces including Guangdong province and Zhejiang province, and ten local teams from Yichang and Jingzhou all gathered in Longquan town to compete in this tournament.

Jointly held by the Social Sports Guidance Center of the State General Administration of Sports, the Chinese Dragon Boat Association, the Municipal People’s Government of Yichang, the Taiwan Affairs Office of People's Government in Hubei province and the Sports Bureau of Hubei Province, this tournament is one of the two national brand competitions of the highest level in China.

The opening ceremony was hosted by Wang Yinghua, the deputy mayor of Yichang City. Special guests presented were Jiang Xiaoyan (the Honorary Vice President of the KMT), Lin Zhihui (the deputy director of the 11thStanding Committee of Provincial People’s Congress), Hu Jianguo (chairman of Asian Dragon Boat Association) and YuHanqiao (director of second department of social sports guidance center of State General Administration of Sports and the secretary general of Chinese Dragon Boat Association ).

Distinguished guests attended the ceremony were Xiao Xuming(vice chairman of  Provincial Political Consultative Conference), Zhou Xiangyang(deputy secretary general of Provincial Political Consultative Conference), Xu Yuanhong(deputy director of Taiwan Affairs Office of People's Government  in Hubei province), Lin Xiaohua(deputy director of  Provincial Sports Bureau), Wang Chuanya(inspector of General Office of the Provincial Standing Committee ) and other municipal leaders including Zhang Jianyi, Liu Xuefu and Qu Peng.

According to the speech of Liu Xuefu (the member of Standing Committee of Municipal Committee, the director of Municipal United Front Work Department and the Chairman of Municipal Labor Union) at the ceremony, the dragon boat tournament held in the water park in Longquanpu ancient town, is not only a leading part of the series of activities in Dragon Boat Festival in Three Gorges of Yichang of China, but also an important part of series of contests in 2016 China Dragon Boat Tournament. As the hometown of the great poet QuYuan and the birthplace of dragon boat, Yichang has a 2000-year history of holding dragon boat races, which has been a annual sports event and cultural feast in Yichang. Sports elites from both sides of the Taiwan Straits gathered in Yichang to cherish the memory of Qu Yuan and compete with each other on this festival, inspiring the strong will and aspiration to love and build the city. In the future, the municipal government will continue to hold international races and build cultural brands with tourism as its carrier and culture as its link, thus providing stronger power for further construction of provincial sub-center and modern megalopolis which is both large and strong, both well-developed and beautiful.

High praises had been given to Daohuaxiang Group and relative government for elaborate preparation of this tournament by Hu Jianguo, on behalf of the Asia Dragon Boat Association. Hu added that, the founding conference of China Dragon Boat Association was held in Zigui, Yichang in 1980s, pulling open the prelude of the development of modern China’s dragon boat and making Zigui the birthplace of the dragon boat race in the world (longest distance). He also believes that the day for Yichang to become a destination for the experience, inheritage, exchange and tourism of dragon boat culture in the world is just around the corner. Dragon boar race will become a unique brand of national fitness in Yichang.

At the opening ceremony, a plague with the model of training and competition basement for the dragon boat was conferred by Yu Hanqiao (director of second department of social sports guidance center of State General Administration of Sports and the secretary general of Chinese Dragon Boat Association) to the water park in Longquanpu ancient town and Dalian Qianlong water sports company presented dragon boats to the municipal sports bureau. Traditional cultural rituals, including worship of Qu Yuan, dragon and goodness, were also held on the ceremony. Presented guests moved to the waterborne platform to drop Zongzi (a special food made of sticky rice and leafs) and alcohol of Daohuaxiang into Bolin River to worship Qu Yuan.

Later on, distinguished guests including Jiang Xiaoyan, Lin Zhihui and so on jointly painted eyes for the dragon boats and XiaoXuMing declared the opening of “2016 China dragon boat tournament sponsored by Daohuaxiang Group". Then, races start with splashing water and rushing boats. The cheering audiences were watching in the rain.

The 500-meter straight race finals for both local groups and open groups and the 5000-meter mark-rounding races would be held successively after the opening ceremony. A tug-of-war competition for local groups and the closing ceremony will be held. (Reporter: Jin Guiman, Huang Shanguo and Bian Jianxin)