Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog: Dragon Boat Festival

Cady Deck Certificate ’19 shares her experience participating in the dragon boat festival.

This year 端午节 (Dragon Boat Festival) occurred at the end of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center’s semester. One of the main activities during this festival is racing dragon boats. There are multiple races in every city across China. This year the Hopkins-Nanjing Center entered two boats into the local race. I was the team captain of “The 龙 (long, or dragon) Shots” and had the responsibility of coordinating practices, filling out lots of paperwork, and selecting positions for my teammates. For our competition, teams consisted of a 舵手 (steerer), a 鼓手 (drummer), and 14 桨手 (oarsmen). Each team was also allowed to have up to four substitutes. Both teams practiced for several weeks leading up to the competition on a small river behind Nanjing University’s Xianlin campus, which is about an hour away from Nanjing University’s Gulou campus (where the Hopkins-Nanjing Center is located). We also practiced one weekend at 百家湖 (Baijia Lake), which is where the competition was held. Although neither team placed in the top half of the competition, everyone had a lot of fun and bonded over soreness and early morning practices.

Racing in the Dragon Boat festival this year was one of my favorite experiences at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. Although the festival fell right before finals, it was a great way to destress and end the semester. I highly recommend participating next year! See photos below of our practices and the race.