Dragon Boat Racing

Yes, we observed another random holiday on Monday. This one was solely so you can watch the Dragon Boat races. The Dragon Boat festival is celebrated in many areas of east Asia with significant populations of ethnic Chinese living there. The date is referred to as the "double fifth" since it falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which often falls on the Gregorian calendar month of June.

It is a team paddling sport that originated in China over 2,000 years ago. While competition has taken place annually for more than 20 centuries as part of folk ritual, it emerged in 1976 as an international sport in Hong Kong.

The streets of Stanley

Beautiful flowers outside of Stanley Market

Cutting through the market, I saw this! I feel like I am back in America...

Now onto the real action- the Dragon Boats!

Dragon Boat teams warming up

This is where the races were taking place. Kind of organized chaos

Beaches were packed with racers. Naturally we were trying to blend in. Ha!

As always, rocking the umbrellas to shield the sun

Corporate Boats to watch the races

There is also a competition for best team costume. There was an awesome Panda team, but sadly they were too far away for me to photograph.

Team Disney Land was pretty cute

Ah yes. One of my favorite things to photograph-bad hair. With that, I leave you with a Asian rat tail. Still looking for a Hong Kong mullet.