Cross-Straits residents gather together to mark Dragon Boat Festival

A group of people from both sides of Taiwan Strait gathered together in the Dacuoji village, Pingtan on June 18, marking the Dragon Boat Festival.

The Dragon Boat Festival, otherwise known as the Duanwu Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival in memory of Qu Yuan, a great scholar and patriotic poet of the state of Chu during the Warring States period (475-221 BC).

"The festive atmosphere here is not different from Taiwan to a large extent," said Jiang Yangfeng, a Taiwan resident who came to Pingtan with his husband in 2016.

Along with a few other Taiwan residents, Jiang was invited to wrap Zongzi or glutinous rice dumplings, and make sachets to celebrate the traditional Chinese festival on the day.

When asked why she strung several dumplings and hung them up onto a rope, the middle-aged woman, running a snack bar in Pingtan, explained it would make dumplings "more portable and easy to store."

"Zongzi, short for ‘Zong', sounds similar to the character ‘Zhong', which means ‘heavy’ in Chinese, so the dumplings tied together created a sense of heaviness," she added.

The activity also drew a couple of local young men to return to the village to get involved, according to Zhu Yiliang, head of Dacuoji village.

"Young people are paying increasing attention to the development of their hometown, even if they live far away," Zhu said, adding that he hoped the event would help spread the traditional Chinese customs and further people-to-people ties across the Straits.

Pingtan, an island city located off the coast of East China's Fujian, is the closet neighbor of Taiwan. 

Jiang Yanfeng (middle) strings rice dumplings up and hung them onto a rope.[Photo/ptnet.cn]

A group of people from both sides of Taiwan Strait gather together in the Dacuoji village, Pingtan on June 18, marking the Dragon Boat Festival. [Photo/ptnet.cn]