Besides the wonderful variety of blooming flowers, there's also rich and colorful folk activities that are being staged in spring in Taizhou city, Jiangsu province.
Every year around the time of Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, over 1,000 boats from Qintong town and surrounding villages in the city's Jiangyan district participate in performances and water sports competitions.
With a recorded history stretching back over 800 years, the Qintong Boat Festival is dedicated to commemorating the nation's fallen soldiers and it was listed as a representative item of national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.
An awe-inspiring view of Qintong Boat Festival. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfabu]
A similar event is the Maoshan Boat Fair, a traditional folk custom of boat races during Qingming Festival and mainly handed down in Maoshan town and surrounding areas in Xinghua city, a county-level city administered by Taizhou.
Every year on the third day of the third month on the Chinese calendar, traditional temple fairs are held in Tangdian village in Hailing district of Taizhou and in Gushan town in Jingjiang city, which is administered by Taizhou.
These temple fairs preserve many folk arts and crafts and sports competitions.
The market for the temple fair held in Gushan town, Jingjiang city, attracts hordes of folks. [Photo/WeChat account: jin-jingjiang]
