Dragon Boat Festival and Baishawan Beach

Trip Start Mar 16, 2004
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Trip End Apr 02, 2005


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Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Happy Dragon Boat Festival everyone. Well, I was pretty bummed out about missing Memorial Day this year, but I was soon to be compensated with Dragon Boat Festival, or "Duanwu Jie" in Chinese. Dragon Boat Festival takes place on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, falling this year on June 22. As I understand it from my students, the festival commemorates the death of a famous author and political advisor around the year 300 BC. The author and political advisor, whose name I can't remember, told the emperor something, which my students couldn't remember, that the emperor didn't want to hear. To punish the man for bearing bad news, the emperor banished the author and political advisor from the kingdom. This was such a great insult to the man that he drowned himself in a nearby river. The author and political advisor was a very respected member of the community, however, so the townspeople raced in boats to try to save him. Shore side onlookers said that the boats moved so fast over the water that they looked like dragons
01A Quiet Moment on the Jilong River
01A Quiet Moment on the Jilong River
. But dragons or not, the townspeople arrived too late, so they threw bundles of glutinous rice, called "zhongzi," into the river so that the fish would eat that instead of the body of the author and political advisor.

What all of this means for me is that I get a day off in which to watch colorful boat races all around Taipei and eat "zhongzi" until my heart's content. As I have been rather busy lately, it was a much-needed holiday, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. The boat races actually started on Sunday, and I have uploaded some pictures of my friend Sally and I checking out the festivities. On Monday, I had to work, but on Tuesday, the actual holiday, I decided to celebrate the same way I would have celebrated Memorial Day at home...by going to the beach. I checked out a northern beach called Baishawan, which means "white sand beach" in Chinese. It is located on the tippity-top of the island. It was a lovely beach with sizeable waves and the exact atmosphere that I was craving on a summer holiday. I wish you all could have been there. I hope everyone had a great day as well. Cheers!
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