Food and sport mark Dragon Boat Festival tradition

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Every Chinese festival has its own special food. For the upcoming Duanwu Festival, or the Dragon Boat Festival, it's Zongzi, a glutinous rice dumpling with various fillings. In east China's Fujian province, the Quanzhou Zongzi has a history long enough to rival some of the countries in the world.

The Quanzhou Zongzi goes back more than a thousand years. It was the experiment of a creative local official keen to explore new ingredients.

The glutinous rice is stuffed an explosion of flavors: fried egg, minced pork, shredded mushroom, shrimp, chestnuts, lotus seeds and more. Everything is wrapped up in boiled bamboo or reed leaves.

Though ingredients may vary, Zongzi makers in Quanzhou are not keen to change the shape. They view it as a symbolic form of history and tradition.

Zongzi need to be boiled for two or three hours before they're ready to eat. Typical accompaniments are peanut butter, chilli sauce and ketchup.

In some parts of China, it's essential to hang some herbs at the door during the Dragon Boat Festival.

The sword-shaped calamus is believed to ward off evil spirits.

Xionghuang Wine is used for the same purpose. It's rice wine mixed with an arsenic compound, effective for keep away insects and snakes. Parents would brush it onto the foreheads of their children as a blessing for wholesome growth.

The fifth day on the fifth month on the lunar calendar is named after its essential sport: racing dragon boats. According to tradition, people paddled out on boats, to scare the fish away feeding on Qu Yuan's body. There's no explanation of who Qu Yuan is.

Every May along the Mohe River in the Pearl River Delta region, a fierce dragon boat race takes place to thunderous drumming on the the banks. Entertainment or competition, it's a loud and clear commemoration for one of China's most famous poets.