Feature: The Beijing club banging the drum for dragon boatin

By Yuan Quan

BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- "Paddles ready? Go!"

The crew of the small dragon boat begin pounding the water with their paddles to the rhythm of the drummer at the bow. Ignoring the splashing, the dragon boaters focus on powering the boat forward.

Welcome to a practice session of TBT, or Towards the Best Team, a group of amateurs who assemble twice a week to train on Beijing's Houhai Lake.

They compete not only to win races, but to tempt other urbanites to join them on the water. Dragon boating may be a tradition dating back thousands of years, but it can seem remote from the lives of modern Chinese, especially in the dry northern cities.

TBT's best chance of changing that comes with China's annual Dragon Boat Festival, a national holiday celebrated this year from June 9-11.

Dragon Boating is the perfect way to wind down after a hard week at work, say many of the 200 members of TBT, although few of them knew much about the sport before taking up their paddles.

Zhang Na and her Canadian friend Victor Kok established the club in 2002. It has a high turnover of members as boaters go abroad or leave for other reasons like pregnancy, but the sport continues.

"We are always seeing new faces introduced by old members," says Zhang.

Fifteen years ago, when most of the participants were expats, many came in the hope of practicing English. But a love of paddling soon became their prime motivation.

Beijing native Xia Tian, 34, finds the experience exhilarating.

Before joining this year, Xia spent his working days in the office, becoming increasingly estranged from physical activity. Dragon boating has lured him back into the open air. "On the boat, I enjoy the sunlight and the cool breeze. It's very relaxing," he says.

Such is the fervor of the participants that the paddling does not stop when the weather is less hospitable, however. "We once rowed in down jackets in temperatures 28 degrees below zero in northeast China," says Xing Ou, a senior member who encourages others to stick with weekly training through her Weibo microblog.

They usually paddle about 5,000 meters, 10 times the distance of an ordinary dragon boat race, and they train in all weathers.

Club members have competed against amateur and professional teams in dragon boat contests around the country.

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