The second International Dragon Boat Festival in Luxembourg was held on the banks of the Moselle River in Remich on Sunday, with participants from various countries competing together to celebrate the upcoming traditional Chinese festival, the Dragon Boat Festival.
The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, traditionally falls on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It will be on June 10 this year.
The dragon boat race commenced with a lion dance performance. Fifteen teams, composed of Chinese-funded enterprises in Luxembourg, local businesses, universities, and government agencies, participated in the competition.
The LUNEX University team crowned the championship after intense competition.
German participant named Hans, who attended the event for the second year, said that with the opening of direct flights between Luxembourg and China in recent years, enthusiasm for Chinese culture among people in Luxembourg and the surrounding regions of Germany and France has been steadily increasing.
"And this event, it helps to bring our both countries and the cultures in general, Europe and China together. And it gives a very good example of cooperation, mutual understanding and of doing things together and working for the mutual success together," said Hans.
Apart from dragon boat racing, people attending the festival were also fascinated with cultural items displayed at the booth of the 'Nihao (Hello)! China' tourism and culture exhibition.
There are various Chinese tourism and cultural promotional materials available for visitors to read at the booth. Many Luxembourg residents visited the booth to learn about China's visa-free policies, payment convenience measures, and direct flight information between China and Luxembourg, and are considering putting 'traveling to China' on their agenda.
"I think it's good to try more and more to get in touch to each other because the world is getting smaller and smaller and we're getting closer and closer together," said a local named Roy.
Lex Delles, minister of the Economy, SME, Energy and Tourism of Luxembourg said that the International Dragon Boat Festival has now become a distinctive cultural event in Remich.
He also hopes that both China and Luxembourg can deepen their cooperation in tourism and culture, and promote cultural exchanges between China and Europe.
"Now it will be traditional here in Remich to have this dragon boat race. Yeah it's a very nice moment, I think people really enjoy it," said the minister.
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Luxembourg holds second international dragon boat festival
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Luxembourg holds second international dragon boat festival
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Luxembourg holds second international dragon boat festival