Here Be Dragons

Dragons have featured in Chinese folklore for thousands of years, revered for their auspicious power, and can be seen throughout Chinese culture, art and myths. Along with the Phoenix they were the symbol for Chinese emperors and are the only mythical creature to be represented on the Chinese Zodiac (if you were born after Chinese New Year in 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, or multiples of 12 years thereafter - you are a dragon!).

Similarly here in Hong Kong, dragons are just as important to local culture and can be seen throughout the territory. Kowloon was so named after the 9 dragons (gow =9, lung= dragon), that are depicted by the 9 peaks around the area. Even with new buildings, considerations with regards to dragons were thought to be taken into consideration. A famous residential development in Repulse Bay was built with a large hole in the middle which some believed was done to allow the dragon from the hills above to fly down to the sea unobstructed to drink - which of course is ridiculous, as dragons do not drink seawater. However it underscores the importance that dragons play even in modern day Chinese culture.

Today, dragons, or dragon boats more precisely, could be seen all over Hong Kong, out in their full glory to celebrate the Tuen Ng (Dragon Boat) festival. All the months of hard training today paid off for the hundreds of teams taking part in the races being held across the Territory. Having failed in our endeavours to get a company team to enter the event (the other original company participants all cried off early on in the training regime as it was too hard going), I turned up in Sai Kung at 7:00am to support the Hong Kong Amatuer Dragon Boat Association (with whom I have been training with these past few months) in their pursuit of honours over the 500m long course, in various classes.

I ended up paddling for the mixed 12's, coming in 4th in the final after a photo finish. All I will say that it was extremely hard going, through very choppy water over a very long course (they race over 275m at Stanley), - we were not even allowed a swim afterwards as sharks had been spotted in the area.

Despite our performance in the mixed 12's, the HKDBA did well all in all, enough to win several roast pigs and a few crates of San Miguel which were soon polished off afterwards!

So it is the international races at Tsim Sha Tsui this coming weekend. I have been invited to come along, however, this is serious stuff now so I do not fancy my chances of getting to race, anyway we shall wait and see. Will post some pics of today's event when I get them.