Qintong Boat Festivalis an annual event in Jiangyan

Jiangyan

Jiangyan is a city in the prefecture of Taizhou in Jiangsu province, China. Jiangyan is most famous for being the birthplace of the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China, Hu Jintao....

, Jiangsu

Jiangsu

' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...

, China.

It has a long history since Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

, and it is becoming an important tourist destination in the whole eastern China with the highlight of the Dragon Boat Racing. Qintong Boat Festival is held in Qingming

Qingming

Traditional East Asian lunisolar calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms . Qīngmíng or Chīngmíng or Seimei is the 5th solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 15° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 30°...

 (around April 4–6) every year. During the festival boats from nearby villages and towns converge in Xique lake for a few days of rejoicing. Theatrical performances, dragon and lion dances, and other folk dances are staged right on board the boats. It gathers about 300,000 people every year during the festival.