The International Dragon Boat Races are the Tourism Board’s harbour-side championship, with Sun Life as title sponsor: a weekend of elite crews from across Asia, Europe and North America racing a short course in front of the Kowloon skyline, wrapped in a carnival of food stalls, a beer garden and cultural workshops along the promenade.
Event Essentials
How to watch
The course runs close to the promenade, so the racing is genuinely watchable from the public walkway without a ticket, and the finish end fills up first. Heats run through the morning with the finals in the afternoon, which is the sensible time to arrive if you only want an hour of it.
This is a separate event from the village races held on the Tuen Ng holiday, which in 2027 falls on Wednesday 9 June. The two are often confused: the international championship is a Tourism Board production on the harbour, the village races are community affairs at Stanley, Aberdeen, Tai O and Sai Kung.
The catch, and the alternative
June on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront is hot, humid and almost entirely unshaded, and the promenade railings are three deep by late morning. If that sounds unappealing, the Stanley races on the Tuen Ng holiday put you much closer to the boats, with a beach to retreat to and a bus ride rather than a crowd crush at the end of it.
Dates, the race programme and any ticketed areas are published by the Tourism Board nearer the time. Check discoverhongkong.com before planning a trip around it.