The serenity of Miluo, a small city to the east of Dongting Lake, a tributary of the Yangtze River, was broken on Wednesday when the city became the venue of the Dragon Boat Festival.

Seventeen teams from eight countries including the United States, South Africa, Singapore and Australia competed fiercely for the championship.

The Dragon Boat Festival, which has been observed over a period of more than 2,300 years in China, derives from the death of Qu Yuan, an eminent poet living in Chu State (currently central China's Hubei and Hunan provinces) during the Warring States (475 BC-221 BC).

Historical records show that when the disillusioned Qu Yuan drowned himself in the local river on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, local residents raced to the site in boats to search for him. They made loud noise to scare away fish and dropped rice dumplings into the water to lure them away from Qu's body.

Ever since then, people have marked the anniversary of Qu's death on by racing dragon boats, eating "Zongzi" -- rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves -- and hanging wormwood around their homes.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture has recently published a list in which the Dragon Boat Festival, along with the traditional Spring Festival and four other festivals, is protected as an item of cultural heritage.

The Dragon Boat Festival has seen its influence expanding overseas, says Zhang Jinsong, a member of the council with China Folkways Society.

"It has become not only an occasion for cherishing the memory of Poet Qu Yuan, praying for good health and safety, but also a fully fledged international sport," said Zhang.

To Pher Chi Khing, captain of the men's team from Singapore, the trip to Miluo is his first to China. "We Singaporeans also observe the Dragon Boat Festival and we eat Zongzi and hold dragon boat races too," he said, "But the festival tends to be more commercial in Singapore compared to China.

On every Dragon Boat Festival, the three sectors representing the schools, companies and banks of Singapore will organize a hundred or so teams to race against each other with the purpose of attracting tourists, says Pher Chi Khing.

Pher Chi Khing's team will move on to compete in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region after Wednesday's contest.

Xinhao Chen, a Chinese American who led a 28-member team consisting of rowers from California, to compete in Wednesday's race, said Dragon Boat Racing is the perfect embodiment of Chinese culture.

"Boat racing has also become a good way for people of Chinese origin residing abroad to seek their ancestral roots and dispel nostalgia," Chen said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2006)