Cheung Chau Dragon Boat Festival (Tuen Ng)

In short: the Tuen Ng Festival (Dragon Boat Festival) falls on Wednesday 9 June 2027, a gazetted Hong Kong general holiday. Cheung Chau holds its own smaller dragon-boat races at the Cheung Chau Typhoon Shelter, a short walk from the ferry pier - separate from the bigger Stanley and Sai Kung events, and free to watch. Exact race times are published close to the date.

When is the Dragon Boat Festival in 2027?

Tuen Ng is fixed by the lunar calendar. The festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is why its Gregorian date moves each year rather than sitting on a fixed day. For 2027 that works out as Wednesday 9 June 2027, and the date appears on the government's published list of Hong Kong general holidays.

Recent years show how far the date can drift: Tuen Ng fell on Friday 19 June 2026 and moves to Wednesday 9 June for 2027. Because it tracks the moon, the date you saw last year will not repeat - check the year you are travelling.

Does Cheung Chau have its own dragon-boat races?

Yes. Cheung Chau holds its own smaller races, and they stay on the island rather than drawing a territory-wide crowd: the racing is at the Cheung Chau Typhoon Shelter, and much of the village turns out to watch. The typhoon shelter is an officially listed venue for dragon boat, colour boat and rowing boat races in the Marine Department's marine sporting activities notice for the 2026/27 year, so the racing there is a recognised, sanctioned fixture rather than an informal get-together.

The low-key, local feel is the point: the huge, sponsor-heavy crowds belong to the separate Hong Kong-wide event, while Cheung Chau is the quiet option, watched with the island's fishing community around you.

What happens on the day

On Tuen Ng the shelter comes alive with dragon boats: long, narrow craft with a carved dragon head and tail, each crew rowing to the beat of a drummer at the bow, who sets the stroke rate that keeps the paddlers together. Watching is a matter of standing at the waterfront and following whichever heat is nearest.

Tuen Ng is a food festival as much as a sporting one. The traditional dish of the day is zongzi - glutinous rice dumplings, savoury or sweet, wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and steamed or boiled. Island restaurants and stalls put them out for the festival, and they are worth trying whether or not you watch a race.

Behind both the boats and the dumplings is the legend of Qu Yuan, a poet and statesman of ancient China said to have drowned himself in protest at a corrupt court; the stories go that villagers raced out in boats to reach him, and threw rice into the river so the fish would spare his body. The rowing and the wrapped rice are the festival's two echoes of that story.

How to watch, and how to get there

Watching is free. The island's races are held on the water at the typhoon shelter, and you follow them from the waterfront - there is no ticketing for Cheung Chau's own racing. The shelter lies a short walk from the Cheung Chau Ferry Pier, so you can step off the boat and be at the water's edge within minutes.

You reach Cheung Chau by ferry from Central Pier No. 5 on Hong Kong Island, operated by Sun Ferry. The ordinary ferry takes roughly 55 to 60 minutes and the fast ferry roughly 35 to 40 minutes. Adult fares, from 1 April 2026:

Because the 2027 festival day is a public holiday, the higher Sunday-and-holiday fares apply on Wednesday 9 June. As on any festival day on Cheung Chau, expect the ferry - and especially the return sailings - to be busy, and travel out early rather than aiming to arrive mid-morning. Full timetables and boarding details are on our complete ferry schedule and the Cheung Chau ferry and transportation guide, with the route itself covered on how to get to Cheung Chau.

Don't confuse it with the Hong Kong international races

The Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races in Victoria Harbour - the big, city-wide championship staged off Tsim Sha Tsui - are a separate event, run over a weekend of their own rather than on Cheung Chau. That is the one with international and corporate crews and huge crowds. It is not the island's festival.

Cheung Chau's racing is the local, on-island version of Tuen Ng. If you want the harbour spectacle, head to Tsim Sha Tsui that weekend; if you want Tuen Ng as a village day, come to Cheung Chau.

Race times, the running order and any programme for Cheung Chau's races are published close to the festival. The governing body for the sport in Hong Kong is the Hong Kong China Dragon Boat Association, which is where the confirmed arrangements appear. We do not print a start time here because none has been published for 2027 yet.

Planning around the day

Tuen Ng is a single day, not a week, so it is straightforward to fold into a visit. Arrive on an earlier ferry, watch the racing at the shelter, eat zongzi along the seafront, then either head back to Central in the late afternoon or stay the night and make a full island day of it. The island's other draws - the beach at Tung Wan, the walking trails and the seafood seafront - are all within easy reach of the pier; see the island map to place the shelter against everything else.

The two big festivals sit in different seasons: the Bun Festival is a spring event (10 to 14 May in 2027), while Tuen Ng is the early-summer dragon-boat day. See the Bun Festival hub for the spring festival, and the June events calendar and the Cheung Chau events calendar for what else is on.