Thousands of people attended the 9am opening of the biggest Beijing Dragon Boat Festival on May 28.

Guishui Park of Yanqing County, northwest of Beijing, hosted this year's celebrations.

Traditional Chinese drummers marked the official opening of the truly unique event. For the first time the Dragon Boat Festival was a multicultural celebration.

Dozens of South American and African entertainers shared the stage with traditional Chinese dancers.

Clowns, dragons, gold and bronze live statues and other creatures performed on the lakeside stage under a rain of confetti.

The festival was long-marked as a holiday in China. But only in 2008, it was celebrated in mainland China as a public holiday for the first time.

The traditional legend holds the festival commemorates the death of a patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

To protest the then corrupt kingdom Qu committed suicide by drowning himself on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month more than 2,000 years ago.

According to the legend local people threw food into the river to feed the fish so they would not eat his body.

This is said to be the origin of zongzi - a sticky rice dumpling wrapped in reed leaves - which became the traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival.

The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.

This year the races took place at the Guishui River.

Twenty boats powered by 10 rowers each took part in the dragon boat race. A drummer sat facing the rowers on each boat setting the completive spirit.

Judge Wang Yan said he was impressed by this year's race. He also emphasized that the Dragon Boating racing is actually more about exercise than competition.

Before a dragon boat enters competition, it must be "brought to life" by painting the eyes in a sacred ceremony.

Whichever boat grabs the flag at the end of the course is the Dragon Boat race's winner.

Song Kangping, one of the rowers, said she was still very happy although her team came last, because the most important thing was that they've participated in the event.

Thirty-three cultural and sports activities were held across Beijing.

Next year's Dragon Boat Festival will fall on June 16.

Editor: Christie Lee