In order to further promote China's excellent traditional culture, facilitate cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and other countries, and enrich the spare time life of teachers and students, from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM on June 15, 2024, an international dragon boat race themed "Dragon Soaring at Yanqi" was grandly held by the picturesque Yanqi Lake. This competition received active response and participation from teachers and students of 31 institutions including the International College, the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the School of Integrated Circuits, with more than 300 participants.

为了进一步弘扬我国优秀的传统文化、推动中外文化的交流互鉴、丰富广大师生的业余生活，2024年6月15日早上7点至中午12点，一场主题为“龙腾雁栖”的中外龙舟大赛在风景如画的雁栖湖畔隆重举行。本次大赛得到了国际学院、中国科学院物理研究所、集成电路学院等31家院所单位师生的积极响应和参与，参赛选手超过300人。

Around seven o'clock in the morning, students began to enter the park one after another, visiting the "Zongzi enjoying the Dragon Boat Festival Garden Party" . This garden party has carefully set up multiple areas, including intangible cultural heritage experience area, game area, blessing area, and prize redemption area, each with unique activities and experiences waiting for everyone. The intangible cultural heritage experience area specially arranged for the display and experience of traditional handicraft projects such as gourd ironing, velvet flower, mother-of-pearl inlay, and water extension, allowing Chinese and foreign students to deeply understand and feel the unique charm of Chinese intangible cultural heritage in the process of making by hand.

The game area has prepared a variety of traditional games such as shooting the five poisons, pot throwing, zongzi setting, chopping bags, and knowledge Q&A, allowing everyone to experience the traditional fun of the Dragon Boat Festival while participating in the games. For example, to echo the custom of driving away the five poisons during the Dragon Boat Festival, a special wall painted with snakes, scorpions, centipedes, geckos, toads, and other five poisons was specially arranged on the scene, and students can shoot the five poisons with bows and arrows smeared with colored paint, symbolizing the avoidance of evil and disaster, bringing good luck.

The calligraphy desk in the blessing area has become a beautiful scenery line in the garden, attracting the attention of many students. The calligraphy desk is equipped with brushes, ink, and colorful cards, waiting for the arrival of students. Whether it is a calligraphy enthusiast or a student full of curiosity about traditional culture, they are all deeply attracted by here. They all stopped and took the cards, writing their own blessings and wishes with their hearts. Every stroke is filled with their emotions and expectations, hoping that these blessing cards can bring good luck to themselves and others.

When the time came to 8:30 in the morning, the participants went to the main stage of the water base set by Yanqi Lake to prepare for the upcoming opening ceremony. In this competition, the famous sports commentator Shen Fangjian came to the scene and brought a wonderful live commentary to the audience.

This "Dragon Soaring at Yanqi" international dragon boat race adopts a 200-meter straight track race system, and the players will compete fiercely on the standard 12-person dragon boat, and the combination of the competition is a mixed group of men and women. The organization of the competition adopts a group knockout system. The 31 participating teams were divided into 8 groups by drawing lots. In the group match, the first place of each group will directly obtain the qualification for the knockout round. Among the remaining 23 teams, the 8 teams with the fastest timing results will also be selected for the knockout round in order of time.

Between the intense group match and knockout round, the organizing committee arranged a unique guest invitation match, aiming to bring a more colorful viewing experience and unexpected surprises to the audience. This invitation match gathered six teams from different backgrounds and fields, which are the International Warriors of Beijing Institute of Technology, the Qiu Chengtong Mathematics College team, the HKS Dragon Boat Team, the Education Foundation, and two student teams from the International College: The Raptors and Dragons, an international college faculty team. These seven teams competed fiercely in the guest invitation match, chasing each other, competing with each other, presenting a high-level dragon boat feast to the audience. The audience was enthusiastic and cheered for their favorite teams, and the atmosphere on the field was extremely warm.

In this grand event, the International College not only served as the organizer, wholeheartedly providing thoughtful service for all participants, but also actively participated in it, organizing three vibrant teams to participate. One of the teams participated in the fiercely competitive official competition, showing a tenacious fighting spirit and excellent competitive level on the field, and finally stood out among the 31 teams and won the seventh place. The other two teams participated in the guest invitation match and communicated and learned with teams from different backgrounds. By organizing these three teams to participate, the International College not only added honor to the college but also provided students with valuable training opportunities, allowing them to temper their will in competition and learn to cooperate in the team. At the same time, this is also a manifestation of the International College's active promotion of campus cultural construction and sports, allowing more teachers and students to participate in this traditional sports activity and feel the happiness and team spirit brought by dragon boat sports.

This "Dragon Soaring at Yanqi" international dragon boat race not only provided a platform for participants to show their spirit of unity and striving forward, but also allowed more people to understand and feel the charm of China's excellent traditional culture. In the competition, the players worked together and rowed hard, showing the spirit of the teachers and students of the science garden who are self-improving, united and striving. At the same time, the competition also attracted many international friends to watch the game, enhancing the exchange between Chinese and foreign cultures. The successful holding of this dragon boat race fully demonstrated the unique charm of China's traditional culture, further promoted the exchange and mutual learning of Chinese and foreign cultures, and injected new vitality into the spare time life of teachers and students. In the future, we look forward to more similar activities to let traditional culture shine in the new era.