| These are the boats lined up along the river. In the distance at the top
left, you can see the Grand Hotel- one of the best known landmarks in Taipei,
which was built as the place for Chiang Kai Shek's guests to stay. See more about the hotel here. |
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| This dragon has his mouth stuffed with ghost money for good luck. |  |
| The holiday occurs right in the middle of the "Plum Rain" monsoon season, which makes Taipei's normally lousy weather even worse- we tried to wait for the rain to end and literally got to the river just as the final race was finishing. |  |
| A picture-perfect view right near the finish line. |  |
| There are many traditions associated with this holiday, and the most common is preparing and eating zongzi, which are glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves. I have heard them called "Chinese tamales", but that's a pretty far stretch. |  |
| Jenny's mother and aunt prepared the zongzi at home. Two bamboo leaves are overlapped and folded to make a pocket, and then filled with uncooked rice and whatever you want to add for flavor- they often contain pork, duck eggs, peanuts, shrimp. There are endless varieties. |  |
| The zongzi are then boiled and later hung to cool and dry. They keep for a very long time and after a quick pop in the microwave, they make a fresh-tasting snack. |  |