Beer and rice dumplings

Many Chinese will probably begin the day of Dragon Boat festival watching the Brazilian football team match early Wednesday morning.

That's exactly the plan of Mou Yisu, a 22-year-old new college graduate who has secured a job offer from a local television station in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

A fan of the Brazilian team, he said, "I am really excited to celebrate the first victory of my favorite team in the World Cup and the Dragon Boat festival together with my friends."

"We will drink beer and have rice dumplings," he said.

The absence of the Chinese national football team at the South Africa World Cup seems to have done nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of football fans in China for the world's largest single event.

At the many lake-front bars in the Houhai area in Beijing, football fans reacted by sighing, thumping the desks and blowing horns to live broadcast of the match between Argentina and Nigeria on large HD screens last Saturday night.

A bartender surnamed Zhang said they were expecting more customers in the next three days, but attributed the increase mainly to the World Cup.

"Dragon Boat festival is like any other days for bars," she said.

Another bartender surnamed Liu said hardly any bar in the area would hold activities to honor the traditions of the Dragon Boat festival, but added that the bar he works for would put rice dumplings on its menu for the next three days.

Holding a cup of beer, a Chinese man, who called himself Jimmy, said he was a die-hard football fan of the Brazilian football team and would hang out with his friends to watch its match with North Korea in a bar.

He also said he would eat rice dumplings on that day, but only because "we will get hungry at midnight watching the World Cup."

"Thanks to Qu Yuan, we have a one-day break from work every year," Jimmy said.