Dragon Boat Festival in Huishui

Yesterday I went out to HuiShui to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival with my colleagues and some of my students. 

 Throughout the city these red balloons were put up. Red is the color of good fortune in China. These people are standing by a wall about 20-30 ft above the river. There was a barrier placed 1 meter from the wall which was guarded by police men. This was to stop people from getting too close and being pushed over or slipping over the wall. The barriers were placed all around the river. People were also not allowed onto the river bank.

 The city was absolutely packed. Entire roads and bridges were blocked off from motor vehicles so that people could walk freely. The crowd on this bridge was small compared to what I saw about 45 minutes after. I swore that the streets of Huishui were more packed yesterday than the streets of Shanghai.

 These older women are from the Miao minority. Their outfits are one of the many minority outfits that people were wearing throughout the day.

 This was the first race of the day. Only two boats competed in this race. The set up is kind of like crew rowing except the rowers work to the beat of the drum placed at the bow of the boat, there is also one guy that controls the rudder in the back of the boat. Watching theses races are fun; people get excited like it is a horse race or something of that nature. Which also means it is a good time to have a friendly bet. I won a stick of peppered snails from another volunteer because my boat won.

 Each boat is decorated with a dragon head on the front and a tail in the back.

 Here you can see an entire boat. Every time the drummer strikes, the rowers row. This race was against a squad from the Chinese military, a group of doctors from a hospital, and a group from the automotive department.

 That is me in the middle with two of my best students on each side. We are sitting on a VIP booth on the river bank. People are not allowed onto the bank or even near the river, but these 2 students asked the police officer if we could be admitted since they wanted to be good hosts for their foreign guests. The police officer asked his boss, who asked his boss, who then asked his boss. After seeing all this happen infront of us we were quite sure we were going to be rejected, but the boss of all the bosses walked over, shook all of our hands, and said "huan ying huan ying" which means welcome welcome. Chinese hospitality is second to none. The other volunteers I was with and myself walked in happily.

 This was the boat of soldiers that was left out of the other frame. Who won? Well, these guys did of course.

 Rain, Lincoln, Will (SEWANEE!), and Ben (SEWANEE!) pose for a group picture as another race takes place behind them. On the other side of the river, up the wall, is where everyone else has to stand. When I was on that side of the river, the crowd was so packed that I could not even see the water from where I was standing.

 This is the boat of doctors passing by. They came last.

 This is the new tattoo of our head chef at GFC. It says "ji dan chao fan". If you think that is some great Confucian proverb, stop thinking so deeply. It means "egg fried rice".

 When foreigners walk around in Guizhou they get stared at. Guizhou province and especially Huishui county does not see many white people. Foreigners are treated like celebrities here. People always want to take pictures with them, but this woman took it up a notch and wanted to dance with one. So in the great mood of the Dragon Boat Festival, Tom had a little fun with the locals.

 Here are some more interns. When we walk around people always point and say "lao wai" (foreigner) or "lao wai ni hao" (hello foreigner!) or "lao wai hen piao liang" (pretty foreigner). While we were crossing the bridge we caught these officers saying "pretty foreigner" to the girls, so they wanted to take a picture with the officers. Unfortunately the officers said they are not allowed to.

 This was the first lantern I caught of the night.

 As the night became darker, more lanterns started filling the sky. People buy the lanters for about 6 kuai, 1 USD, and write wishes on the side before they send them off.

 While we were assembling our lanterns, this guy was about 5 feet away from us sending his off. He is one of the Huishui locals.

 Alicia is seeing if hers is inflated enough to push off. She was having a little trouble so the hands you see are the guy's in the last picture who offered to help.

 My hand sending off my lantern. We realized that blowing helps it rise; it gives it a little extra puff of air and also makes the fire burn a little harder for a second.

 This is Gabi, one of the newer interns at GFC. She was ecstatic about doing this since she has never seen anything like it before. This day was jam packed full of really incredible new experiences.

 A young girl in the distance sending hers off.

The river that runs through Huishui is also the river that runs past GFC. The name of the river is Bai Niao He. I have no idea what it means. This is the main bridge in Huishui and those little orange lights in the sky are lanters flying up.

The night ended with an amazing display of fireworks. There were so many powerful fireworks that I saw a window from a store blow open. It was a really amazing way to wish us all a happy festival.