Dragon Boat Race on Land

On the occasion of the coming Dragon Boat Festival, 30th May, School of International Education organized a Dragon Boat Race on 25th May to enrich students’ campus life and to help them know more about Chinese traditional culture.

The Dragon Boat festival, also known as the Duanwu Festival, is a traditional and important celebration on the fifth day of the fifth month of Chinese Lunar Calendar. And Chinese usually celebrate it by eating zongzi (rice wrapped in leaves), wearing perfumed medicinal pouches and hanging calamus to ward of disease and evil.      

But the highlight of the celebrations is the Dragon Boat Race. The School added a twist to the event so that students could participate during their hectic schedules. Instead of rowing boats in a river, the competition saw the students lifting and racing with two cylindrical rafts in the shape of dragons.

In total there were 12 teams, including ten teams from MBBS programs students, one team from Chinese medium students, two from the international students’ council and one from the Teaching Staff. Each Team was given one chance to run and their finishing time was recorded. Everyone was very enthusiastic and competitive and the cheering from audience kept increasing.

The two top teams were given another chance to compete to decide the winner. In the final, 2016 batch beat 2014 batch, followed by 2013 batch and another team from 2014 batch.

The purpose of the races was to provide a healthy and fun interaction between all the international students that come from diverse backgrounds and with different traits. The School will continue to provide students a healthy and stress-free environment. 

Sourav, from 2015 batch, said, “The event was so refreshing and fun. I hope this event can be organized every year.” And Abhishek, also from 2015 batch, said, “It was so interesting to watch the races from the audience, I can only imagine how much more interesting it would have been to participate in one!”