Xinhua News Agency, Otsu, Japan, August 20 (reporter Yang Guang, Li Guangzheng) Japan Shiga County held the 30th Biwa Lake dragon boat race competition on the 20th. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, the youth of China and Japan jointly formed teams for the first time.

Nearly 40 teams participated in the competition on that day. Although the Chinese and Japanese youth team failed to qualify directly in the first round of group matches, they won the first place in the group in the resurrection match, successfully advanced to the next round, and finally won the seventh place.

The members of this team are all college students, and they are also the first time to contact dragon boats. Yan Peijie, a Chinese player, is 21 years old and studying in Kyoto University. He said that he had no expectations for the results and hoped to establish friendship with Japanese students in the competition. “It is good for everyone to have fun together”.

Before the game, the Chinese and Japanese players accepted the coach’s guidance for the first time. They waved their oars carefully along with slogans on land, trying to keep pace. Before boarding the ship, Japanese team members picked up life jackets from the ground and handed them to Chinese companions one by one to remind them to pay attention to safety.

Although there are only 10 members of the Sino-Japanese youth team and their faces and movements are slightly immature, they are undoubtedly the most concerned existence in the stadium that day.

The governor of Shiga county of Japan who attended the event came to the shore on Mikazuki to watch the Chinese and Japanese team members board the ship and cheer for it. He watched the first game all the way. After the game, he greeted the team members off the ship on the shore, clapped with them one by one, and invited them to take a group photo.

Mikazuki Dafang said, “everyone will ride dragon boats together, shout slogans together, and paddle hard together, which will unite a force for continuous progress in the future. Chinese and Japanese youth promote exchanges in sports, culture, art and other fields through dragon boat rowing together, which enables them to establish a very good relationship and realize mutual understanding and mutual help.”

Li Fan, a Chinese player from Kyoto Bukkyo University, said that he was getting better and better with Japanese classmates on board, which made him very satisfied. After the game, everyone shared their experiences and corrected the nonstandard actions.

Japanese team member de yongkuo said that although it was the first time to dragon boat rowing, the ship moved faster than everyone thought. Before the game, they asked each other about their names and where they came from with the Chinese players and cheered each other in the game. “If possible, I also want to keep in touch with them in the future.”

Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, where the dragon boat competition began in 1991. In that year, Shiga county, Japan sent a delegation to participate in the Miluo River international dragon boat festival in Hunan, China. After the game, Hunan province gave two dragon boats “Dongting” and “PIPA” to Shihe County as a friendly witness. After that, the Pipa lake in Shihe County held relevant competitions every year before and after August, and this year was the 30th.

Dragon boat race attracts thousands of people to participate and watch every year. It is not only a beautiful Chinese cultural landscape on Pipa lake, but also a precious memorial to witness the history of Sino-Japanese friendship. The event on that day was supported by the Chinese Consulate General in Osaka. Special booths are also set up on the site for local people to understand the culture of Hunan and other places in China.

Xue Jian, consul general of China in Osaka, said in his speech that the dragon boat race competition in Biwa Lake has become a symbol of friendship between Hunan province and Shihe County for nearly 40 years. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, just as every paddle adds momentum to the dragon boat and cheers for every sound of Sino-Japanese friendship, both will inspire the two peoples to inject positive energy into Sino-Japanese relations.