On June 18th, the Dragon Boat Festival, over a thousand people gathered at Chihe Lake in Xinfeng Township, participating in the 2018 Hsinchu County Magistrate Cup Dragon Boat Race. The total number of teams involved reached a record high of 43. The sounds of drums and cheers from the crowds further livened things up.
"In a dragon boat race, paddlers should have a synchronized pace, and the crew have to stick together to win," Magistrate Chiu Ching-chun emphasized. This year, many foreigners joined in this event. One team named "吞兵衛" (吞ん兵衛)consisted of Japanese crew who worked in Taiwan. All the crew members had the natioanl flags of Japan and ROC painted on their faces, which caught people's eyes. Another team named "Chunghua Haiqing" comprised Malaysian students who studied here. Besides, foreign students from Tsing Hua University and Chung Hua University, TSMC, and Taipei Veterans General Hospital Hsinchu Branch all made up teams to compete in the race. The county government and county council also formed teams to compete with each other in an exhibition race. All the teams were nip and tuck, which made the race even more thrilling.
Xinfeng Township Office showed that there were 43 teams attending this year's dragon boat race, with 21 teams in the open men's race, 5 in the women's race, 8 in the mixed race, 5 in the intitution men's race, and 4 in the exhibition race.
After cheering on all the teams one by one, Magistrate Chiu Ching-chun, Deputy Magistrate Yang wen-ke, and Council Speaker Zhang Zhen-rong attended a dragon boat robot exhibition hosted by SHA YANG YE Inc. They also experienced a dragon boat robot race via remote controllers. In addition to the competition of speed, the dragon boat robot also had to catch the flag to complete the race, just like the real one. Since the operation of flag catching was a bit difficult, the contestants could not make it despite several attempts, which really amused the people around. Magistrate Chiu also promoted the local specialty of Xinfeng Township--duck eggs by cooking and sharing sunny-side-up eggs with the visitors on the spot.