Qintong Boat Festival welcomes grand opening ceremony

The much-anticipated Qintong Boat Festival kicked off on April 8 in Jiangyan district in Taizhou, which is located in the center of East China's Jiangsu province, and wowed crowds of visitors with its boat performance.

[Video by Han Jing provided to etaizhou.gov.cn]

Eight boats were specially decorated to showcase Jiangyan's unique development and each was welcomed with applause from the crowd.

Colorful activities such as dalianxiang dance, martial arts and traditional opera were also staged to live musicians.

This year's festival will run until the end of June and includes 18 activities such as appreciating camellia flowers, wetland tours and food tastings.

The Qintong Boat Festival is one of the major cultural events in Jiangyan district. Originating in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), it was a ceremony to commemorate war victims around the time of the Qingming Festival.

As such, the tradition is well preserved and promoted, offering an exhilarating view of the gathering of hundreds of boats.

Qintong Boat Festival was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008 and was dubbed as "the world's largest temple fair on water".