Dragon Boat Festival Food: Traditional Dishes & Drinks for Duanwu Jie

Written by Maren Hamilton | Updated July 24,2025

One of the best parts of China’s traditional festivals are the dishes you’ll try, and the Dragon Boat Festival is no exception. While the boat races are what normally catch tourists’ eye, it’s also a great chance to try all kinds of new foods. But what kind of food can you expect? No need to do extra research – we’ve got you covered.

Here’s our guide to traditional Dragon Boat Festival food and drinks so you’ll know not only what dishes to look for while you’re there but also the history and meaning behind them.

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• Dragon Boat Festival Food: The Basics
• 1. Zongzi: The Signature Dragon Boat Festival Food
• 2. Realgar Wine: An Alcoholic Antidote
• 3. Eel: For Health and Fortune
• 4. Tea Eggs: Eating on the Go
• 5. Fried Cakes: A Southern Treat
• 6. Salted Duck Egg: To Beat the Heat
• 7. Mung Bean Cakes: A Balancing Lightness
• 8. Dagao: A Korean-Chinese Specialty
• 9. Garlic Eggs: A Medicinal Snack
• 10. Thin Pancakes: A Crispy Way to Cool Off
• Dragon Boat Festival Food by Region
• China Food Tour with Us

Dragon Boat Festival Food: The Basics

What Is the Dragon Boat Festival?

The Dragon Boat Festival is one of China’s most important traditional holidays. Also known as Duanwu Jie or Duanwu Festival, the holiday takes place on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar, typically landing in late May or early June. The fifth lunar month is considered to be unlucky, which led to the development of various regional traditions to try to dispel bad fortune which slowly merged to form the holiday as we know it today.

Why Food Plays a Central Role in the Dragon Boat Festival Celebration

While every holiday has its traditional dishes, the Dragon Boat Festival’s traditional food is particularly important during the due to the story behind the holiday.

The most common tale about the origin holiday is that of Qu Yuan, a key poet and politician during the Warring States Period of Chinese history. He was exiled from the court but remained loyal to his kingdom until it was conquered, at which point he drowned himself in a river.

Qu Yuan was much beloved by the people, so they rushed out in boats to try to save him. When they realized it was too late, however, they began throwing zongzi into the water to keep the fish from eating his body. That’s why zongzi, along with other foods, are so central to the holiday today, as well as why boat races are commonly held during the festival.

1. Zongzi: The Signature Dragon Boat Festival Food

• In Chinese: 粽子 (zòng zi)

What Is Zongzi?

Zongzi, or 粽子 in Chinese, is the most important Dragon Boat Festival food. Sometimes referred to as sticky rice dumplings, the dish consists of glutinous rice and various sweet or savoury fillings wrapped in bamboo leaves.

Regional Varieties of Zongzi Across China

Given how many distinct and delicious cuisines there are in China, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that zongzi can vary a lot from region to region, especially with regards to their fillings. Here are some examples:

• Beijing’s zongzi typically have sweet fillings such as red dates or bean paste.
• Unsurprisingly, Sichuan uses its famous numbing spice in their Zongzi, mixing it with savoury meat.
• Shanxi’s zongzi are often yellow as they use yellow millet or rice instead of white. The fillings are sweet, similar to those of Beijing.
• Guangdong and Hong Kong’s zongzi are often filled with savoury fillings like marinated meat, dried scallops, or salted egg yolk.
• Zongzi from northern Taiwan are notable for being steamed rather than boiled, which is more common in China’s Mainland.

Zongzi Recipe: Ingredients & How to Make It

Here’s a quick recipe to make about 4 or 5 zongzi:

Steps:

Prep

• • Wash and boil 8-10 bamboo leaves the day before, leaving them to soak overnight
  • Leave 1 cup of glutinous rice to soak overnight
  • Marinate any fillings if needed

Wrapping

• • Drain the leaves and rice
  • Take two leaves and slightly overlap them so the pointed ends are facing each other
  • Fold the leaves about ⅓ of the way down into a cone shape
  • Add your rice, adding the fillings when the cone is about halfway full
  • Fold the remaining bamboo leaves to close the cone and use cooking twine to keep everything in place

Cooking

• • Boil for 2.5-3 hours or steam for 4-5 hours

Enjoy!

2. Realgar Wine: An Alcoholic Antidote

• In Chinese: 雄黄酒 (xióng huáng jiǔ)

Also called Xionghuang Wine (雄黄酒) in Chinese, this drink is made of yellow wine mixed with an arsenic sulfide mineral. Used as a kind of “pest repellant” since ancient times, it was also traditionally consumed in the Yangtze River Basin to ward people against insects, disease, and evil spirits in early summer, leading to its inclusion in the modern Duanwu Festival.

3. Eel: For Health and Fortune

• In Chinese: 黄鳝 (huáng shàn)

A common Duanwu Festival food in Nanjing and the Jianghan Plain, eel (黄鳝, huángshàn) is a popular dish because its meat is at its most tender during the holiday. The dish is often lauded as being better for one’s health than even ginseng due to its nourishing qualities and is frequently served braised in special sweet and umami sauce. The dish also carries connotations of good fortune and plentiful harvests. 

4. Tea Eggs: Eating on the Go

• In Chinese: 茶叶蛋(chá yè dàn)

Between the summer heat and the dragon boat races, people need something they can eat on the go – that’s why tea eggs (茶蛋) are such a popular Dragon Boat Festival food, especially in areas like Nanchang and central China. Simmered in a mix of tea, spices, and even sometimes medicinal herbs, tea eggs not only fit the holiday’s theme of preventing disease, they’re also a portable and nutritious snack.

5. Fried Cakes: A Southern Treat

• In Chinese: 煎堆(jiān duī) / 麻团 (má tuán)

Fried Cakes, known as Jiandui or Matuan (煎堆 / 麻团), are a common Chinese food to find on Dragon Boat Festival menus in southern China, especially in Fujian and Guangdong. A deep-fried glutinous rice ball covered in sesame paste and filled with sweet flavours like bean paste, this dish’s round shape symbolises family unity, a common theme among traditional Chinese holidays.

6. Salted Duck Egg: To Beat the Heat

• In Chinese: 咸鸭蛋 (xián yā dàn)

In all of China, but especially in Jiangnan, salted duck eggs or 咸鸭蛋​ are a popular Dragon Boat Festival food. Cured until the whites become firm and salty while the yolk turns a rich golden-orange, traditional belief holds that salted duck egg is able to balance heat and cold, making it a perfect treat to prevent illness during early summer’s temperature changes.

7. Mung Bean Cakes: A Balancing Lightness

• In Chinese: 绿豆糕(lǜ dòu gāo)

Mung bean cakes (绿豆糕) are a popular Duanwu Festival food in places like Wuhan, Nanjing, and Xi’an. With a light and delicate flavor, they’re often eaten alongside zongzi to balance the dish’s heavier stickiness. They’re also considered to be “cooling” in traditional Chinese medicine, making them a great fit for the heat of summer.

8. Dagao: A Korean-Chinese Specialty

• In Chinese: 打糕(dǎ gāo)

If you find yourself in Jilin along the Chinese border with North Korea during the Dragon Boat Festival, you might get the chance to enjoy dagao, written as 打糕 or “hit cake” in Chinese. This dish is made by pounding glutinous rice flour with mugwort until it has a mochi-like texture and is often dipped in with soybean powder or sugar before being eaten. Not only is the mugwort believed to help ward off evil spirits, the dish itself is generally associated with prayers for safety and good fortune.

9. Garlic Eggs: A Medicinal Snack

• In Chinese: 大蒜蛋 (dà suàn dàn)

A common breakfast food in Henan and Zhejiang, garlic eggs (大蒜蛋) are made by boiling eggs with garlic and mugwort. Believed to be able to ward off the “five poisons” of early summer and help people bear the heat and humidity of the season, it’s not hard to figure out why this dish is considered a traditional Dragon Boat Festival food.

10. Thin Pancakes: A Crispy Way to Cool Off

• In Chinese: 卷薄饼 (juǎn báo bǐng)

Popular in southern China, this Chinese dish is made from a thin batter and then filled with ingredients such as mung bean sprouts, chives, pork, and more. Like many of the other common Dragon Boat Festival foods on this list, the fillings of these thin pancakes, commonly known as 卷薄饼, often have medicinal properties that are said to help with the summer heat.

Dragon Boat Festival Food by Region

Beyond the regional differences in zongzi listed above, there are some other broad differences in Dragon Boat Festival foods across the country, according to climate and preferences. On the coast, for example, people tend to eat a lot more seafood, while those in the northeast of the country, where bamboo isn’t common, make sweet fermented oats (甜醅子) instead of zongzi.

Another interesting Dragon Boat Festival tradition among students is eating pen-shaped zongzi. The word for these “pen-zong” is “笔粽” sounds like “必中”, a phrase which means “sure to pass”. As a result, many students eat this in the hopes that it will bring them good luck for their exams.

Unique Festival Foods from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Jiangnan…

China Food Tour with Us

As you can now tell, Dragon Boat Festival foods offer a variety of delicious experiences, but don’t worry if you can’t make it during the holiday. Here at China Xian Tour, we offer both preset and customizable food tours with local guides so you get the best culinary experience during your time in China. Whether you want to try street food in Xi’an, test your spice tolerance in Chengdu, or spend 13 days enjoying all the delicacies China has to offer, we’ve got you covered.

So what are you waiting for? Contact us and get ready for your next Chinese adventure today!