Dragon boat races held in Guangzhou to celebrate Dragon Boat Festival

Exciting dragon boat races were held in several districts of Guangzhou, capital city of south China’s Guangdong Province, on Saturday, to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival that falls on June 19 this year.

In Tianhe District, nine local teams engaged in fierce competition.

The event featured a traditional 350-meter straight-course round-trip race, in which teams had to successfully retrieve a flag at the turnaround point and immediately head back.

The venue was buzzing with the constant roar of cheers and shouts of encouragement.

In Renhe Town, Baiyun District, a three-day dragon boat drifting competition was also in full swing.

Members of 33 dragon boat teams paddled through the waves, racing fiercely to take the lead, drawing waves of cheers from the onlookers. In addition to the dragon boat races, a food street was set up, featuring authentic local delicacies such as fresh abalone, roasted goose, and white-cut chicken.

Pan Jianming, vice president of the Guangdong Folk Culture Research Association, said the dragon boat races help boost cultural exchanges.

“This competition is essentially a cultural exchange between our villages and townships. In addition to the cultural exchange, it also showcases the spiritual and cultural outlook of our rural communities,” he said.

The Dragon Boat Festival, one of China’s most celebrated traditional holidays, commemorates the ancient patriotic poet Qu Yuan. The festival is marked by customs such as eating zongzi, wearing protective sachets and five-colored bracelets, and watching dragon boat races.

A leading Japanese economist has warned that the Bank of Japan’s anticipated interest rate hike will not address the country’s fundamental economic problems, calling instead for structural reforms and stronger support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The economist’s comments come as the yen exchange rate continues to hover near 160 yen per U.S. dollar, with Japanese media and financial markets widely expecting the Bank of Japan to announce a rate hike at its monetary policy meeting on June 15 and 16.

“Japanese political and economic scholar Hamada Kazuyuki said: “The future trend of the Japanese economy is also affected by factors such as rising crude oil prices and inflation, and there are no signs of these problems being resolved anytime soon. If left unchecked, they will develop into a serious inflationary trend. This will not only affect enterprises but also the daily lives of ordinary people. Therefore, in order to curb these impacts, the Bank of Japan is taking countermeasures and adjusting toward the direction of raising interest rates. However, whether these measures can truly be effective still remains highly uncertain,” he said.

He also noted that the operations of small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan continue to face pressure, and the overall recovery of the Japanese economy is filled with uncertainty. The Japanese government’s model of relying on debt to rescue the market only addresses symptoms rather than root causes and cannot solve the fundamental problems of the Japanese economy, he added.

“More than 80 percent, or even 90 percent, of Japanese enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises. Only a small number of large enterprises have gained profits from exchange rate fluctuations. The vast majority of small and medium-sized enterprises are already on the edge of life and death. Therefore, without more adequate support policies for small and medium-sized enterprises, it will be very difficult for the Japanese economy to achieve recovery or restoration. The current government is in a rather difficult situation. Originally, it said no supplementary budget was needed, but as the economy deteriorates, it has no choice but to rely on supplementary budgets and deficit financing to barely cope. But this is not a fundamental solution. Continuing down this path will only make Japan’s situation further deteriorate. Therefore, if the government truly wants to improve the economy, it must cut waste within the existing fiscal scope and concentrate resources into truly effective areas. This is the necessary direction,” he said.