SHANGHAI: The Fifth World Dragon Boat Racing Championships will be held in the city in late October.

Representing the highest-level gathering of dragon-boat competitors in the world, the tournament is scheduled to take place from October 20 to 24 at the Shanghai Aquatic Sports Centre, organizers announced on Friday.

The centre is located on Dianshan Lake in the city's western Qingpu District.

Dragon boat racing, which is believed to have a history of over 2,000 years, is gaining growing global popularity, a reflection of growing global recognition and acceptance of Chinese culture, said officials.

Over 2,000 athletes from 19 countries and regions have already signed for the tournament, including from Germany, the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Russia and China, said Tao Xiafang, secretary-general of the tournament's organizing committee.

"We will have the biggest-ever water gala since the event's debut in 1995," Tao said.

Featuring people rowing, roaring and racing on exquisitely-designed long boats, the dragon boat race is usually held on the fifth day of the fifth Chinese lunar month to commemorate Qu Yuan (340-277 BC), a minister of the ancient Chinese Chu State and one of China's earliest poets.

Although the sport has gradually gone beyond the scope of Chinese heritage and is winning growing global acceptance, especially in European countries.

According to Lei Jun, administration director of the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF), which was founded in 1991 as the sport's governing body, there are now over 40 million people worldwide engaged in the sport, and there are about eight to 10 international dragon boat racing competitions each year on the Chinese mainland.

Apart from the participation of sports clubs and individual amateurs, quite a few companies around the world have turned to the sport as a means of enhancing their corporate spirit and raising employees' morale, he said.

There will be a variety of races of different distances for the participation of men's, women's, youth and senior citizens teams at the Shanghai event, and a special race for women who have recovered from breast cancer.

It is the third time such a tournament has been held in China. Previously, it was held in Yueyang of Central China's Hunan Province, Hong Kong, Nottingham in the United Kingdom, and Philadelphia in the United States.

(China Daily 07/17/2004 page2)