As the nation prepares for a well earned three day break for the Duanwu Festival (it’s back to work on Sunday, folks), also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, so Nanjingers ponder where to spend that valuable and limited free time, with friends and family.
An event billed as the “largest Hot Air Balloon Fiesta” is surely going to need a lot of space. Just the spot is to be had in Nanjing’s Liuhe district, at the Babu Luo Eco Valley. In addition to the balloons, the vast outdoor amusement park offers an ecological ranch plus fruit and vegetable picking areas. See the rape seed in bloom, feed the goats, race the go carts and lots more! The hot air balloon fiesta shall take place on 10th and 11th June.
Preceding this, the Sheraton Kingsley Dragon Boat Challenge shall once again take place on Mochou Lake on 9th June. Thousands come each year to line the banks of the lake, picnic and watch teams from local and international companies sink or swim! The event goes on all day.
Perhaps the biggest local draw of this year’s Duanwu Festival will be the reopening of Nanjing Happy Magic Water Cube in Tangshan. As Asia’s largest outdoor water park that is able to accommodate 30,000 people, the masses come for the 10,000 square metre “beach” and the various rides that range from hilarious to terrifying. The three metre high Tsunami wave is the biggest in Asia while others offer the chance to surf, or body board, a two metre wave, and, in the case of the Overturning Rivers and Seas (known as Aqua Loop in the water ride industry), experience a 16 metre vertical drop that will see one reach 60kmph. What happens after that is, a secret, but it surely involves a lot of water. Nanjing Happy Magic Water Cube reopens for business on 8th June.
Duanwu Festival is one of three traditional traditional festivals in China that entitle people to a day off; the others being the Mid Autumn Festival and the Tomb Sweeping Festival, in addition to the week long Chinese New Year and other secular holidays.
