Dragon boat races returned in parts of China on Friday for first time since outbreak of pandemic in late 2019, as restrictions are lifted along with a major drop in COVID cases.
The historic Lychee Bay scenic area in southern Chinese manufacturing hub of Guangzhou staged races and other scaled-back celebrations to mark holiday that commemorates death more than 2,200 years ago of revered poet and government minister Qu Yuan. Restrictions on length of events and size of crowds remained in place but did little to dampen mood. Along with dragon boat races, which feature teams of up to a dozen or more paddlers, the holiday is marked by community gatherings and the enthusiastic consumption of steamed rice dumplings cooked with meat, peanuts and other ingredients and wrapped in green leaves bound with string.
China recorded just 74 new COVID-19 cases on Friday and restrictions have been eased in cities such as Shanghai, which had been under strict lockdown for more than two months.
While travel restrictions, testing requirements, quarantines and mask mandates remain, the country is gradually emerging from its hard-line "zero-COVID" policy that has throttled domestic economy and severely constricted global supply chains.