Visitors watch boat races on Ying Chu Lake at Chang Feng Park during the Shangahi Pu Tuo Dragon Boat Festival on Wednesday, June 16, 2010. The races started with a bang and a cloud of colorful smoke over the lake.

Today is officially the Dragon Boat Festival Holiday here in China. Andrea Hunt is in Shanghai and spent her morning checking out how people in Chang Feng Park are spending their holiday.

 Today marks the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, a holiday that commemorates a legend dating back over 2000 years ago.

As the story goes, Qu Yuan was a poet from the State of Chu who was respected by the common people for his moral dignity and writing, which ultimately clashed with the emperor during that time.

While living in exile, news arrived of the invasion of his beloved State of Chu, and he was so distraught that he flung himself into the Mi Luo River.

The villagers rushed to the middle of the lake in their boats to save him, flinging 'zong zi' rice dumplings into the water to keep the fish from eating his body.

So in the spirit of the legend, people here in China eat 'zong zi' and take part in dragon boat racing.

This morning on Ying Chu Lake, 26 teams from Shanghai, Taiwan, Canada and the USA competed in Dragon Boat races.

Shanghai local Jerry Lu was there to catch the action and explains why he thinks it's important to keep this aspect of Chinese culture alive.

"Nowadays, I find there is a lot of culture conflict and a lot of people accept quite a lot of Western culture, especially the youth already forgot the traditional Chinese culture and if you know the story of Qu Yuan, you will know it's quite important for Chinese people to memorize such a great philosopher who deeply loved his country. We say, country, family, world-"Jia Guo Tian Xia."

But it isn't just locals taking in the festivities. A number of others were on hand to watch and take part in the action as well.

Among them is Jimmy Chan, who is the founder of the Montreal Chan Dragon Boat Sport Club and coach of the Canadian team.

"When I was a kid in Hong Kong, my grandfather was the chief of the Dragon Boat Federation. Every year he would always bring me to an event like this, I said to myself, maybe one day when I grow up, I want to be one of the paddlers. So, then I immigrated to Canada when I was a very young age also, and fifteen years ago when Montreal had the Dragon Boat Festival, I was actually one of the first ones to develop a team to compete."

Chan says the 'Shanghai Pu Tuo Dragon Boat Festival' is not just about the competition. He contends that it's also a great way to keep Chinese traditions alive.

Jimmy Chan from Hong Kong attended the Shanghai Pu Tuo Dragon Boat Festival to support his team from the Montreal Chan Dragon Boat Sport Club in Canada.

Shanghai resident Jerry Lu enjoys the boat races at the Shanghai Pu Tuo Dragon Boat Festival. He believes it is important to keep the tradition of dragon boat races alive in modern Chinese culture.