Celebrating Chinese culture with the annual Dragon Boat Festival 🛥️

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It was a beautiful day for some boat races. Down at Lake Shore State Park people gathered for the annual Dragon Boat Festival today, July 12. 

This event includes dozens of heat races with teams of people rowing boats.

They gathered bright and early to set up for the races, with qualifying kicking off at 8 a.m. and the final races ending at 3 p.m.

Organizers say the event is also a great way to give Milwaukee's Chinese community the representation it deserves. 

"I'm very proud because my family's been in the Milwaukee area for 130 years now."  said Rick Fong of the Wisconsin Chinese Chamber of Commerce. "I'm the fourth generation over here and if you go back to the early days, we did not have this camaraderie and this community that we have at this time" 

Besides the races, there were celebrations of Chinese culture. Dances, tai chi demonstrations, traditional music and food were all there for the public to enjoy.