2021 Dragon Boat Festival Family Trip to Langxia

Duration: 1 day Time: June Cost per person: 100 yuan With whom: Family Mode of travel: Self-driving,[...]

Duration: 1 day
Time: June
Cost per person: 100 yuan
With whom: Family
Mode of travel: Self-driving, free travel
The author visited these places: Langxia Country Park, Agritourism in Langxia, Shanghai Old Wharf
Posted on June 14, 2021, at 12:10 PM.

It was once again the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. After discussing with my partner, we planned for the whole family to visit the Langxia Country Park in Jinshan. This was our second time here, so we were quite familiar with the area. The planned route was to first visit Langxia Country Park, then experience the unique fruit picking in Langxia, as June is the season for blueberry ripening. We planned to have lunch at a nearby farmhouse and participate in the Dragon Boat Festival garden activities in Shantang Street in the afternoon. On June 13th, it started raining before departure. Checking the weather in Jinshan showed light rain, so we continued with our plan as scheduled.

Of course, plans can change. We set off from Shanghai around 10 AM and arrived in Langxia after 11 AM. Our second child was eager to pick blueberries, while our eldest was keen on flying a drone at the country park. After discussion, we decided to pick blueberries first. The Fengcai Garden Blueberry Orchard is not far from Langxia Country Park, just 1 kilometer away. June is the season for blueberry ripening. We asked the staff at the blueberry orchard for baskets and rushed to the orchard with the children, excited. The intermittent heavy rain in the sky made the picking even more enjoyable!Lunch was at the Jinshan Jinjiang Zhonghua Village Agritourism, which is just around the corner from the blueberry picking orchard. Parking at the restaurant entrance was convenient. The menu mainly consisted of farmhouse dishes. We ordered four dishes and a soup, along with a Shanghai-style rice dish. Everyone enjoyed it comfortably, especially the seasonal vegetable (garden chrysanthemum) which received unanimous praise.

After lunch, we headed to Shantang Street. We had visited with the children a year ago, also in June. But the difference was that Shantang Street was almost deserted a year ago. Whereas during the Dragon Boat Festival, it was bustling with visitors. Shantang Old Street is indeed a miniature old street, running north to south. There is a Shantang Ancient Bridge connecting Shanghai Jinshan and Zhejiang Pinghu. The north side of the street is less than a hundred meters long, and the south side is at most two hundred meters. Strolling along the old street, we also felt the old style of the street. There is a post office and a supply and marketing cooperative, which I guess people born in the 90s and 00s have never heard of. The Dragon Boat Festival garden activities were very exciting. What was worth looking forward to was the afternoon dragon boat bullfighting competition. The dragon boat race was still early, so we joined in the garden activities with the children. We wrapped zongzi, made sachets, braided five-color ropes, and played games to kill the five poisons. The children participated and felt the festive atmosphere of the Dragon Boat Festival.The dragon boat bullfighting competition started at 2:30 PM at the Shantang Old Wharf. The old wharf is the former site of a steamship dock, which once brought convenience to the residents of Shantang for their travel.

Everyone knows bullfighting, but water bullfighting should be seen for the first time. In fact, this is more like a water tug-of-war competition. The rules of the game are not complicated. For the same dragon boat, there are six people in each team. The two teams sit facing each other. After the start of the game, each team rows forward with force. When the team passes the center line, it is the winner.

When we arrived, the preliminaries had ended and it had reached the decisive stage. The two teams had a best-of-three match and were competing for the final championship.

After watching the dragon boat race, today’s tour of Langxia also ended. We returned home. On the way, we experienced heavy rain on the highway and returned home smoothly all the way.