Promoting Hong Kong’s intangible cultural heritage in California and Colorado

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco (HKETO San Francisco) made a big splash at the Sloan’s Lake Park in Denver receiving over 2,000 visitors on September 6-7, 2025 at the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, the largest of its kind in the US.

The festival reached a significant milestone celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The two-day event attracted more than 200, 000 festival goers and paddlers.

HKETO San Francisco had a marquee at the festival sharing information about Hong Kong. With support from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and Intangible Cultural Heritage Office, the theme this year is intangible cultural heritage of Hong Kong.

As visitors lined up to play a game for Hong Kong-themed souvenirs, they studied factsheets on Hong Kong cheongsam making technique, Cantonese opera, lion dance, paper crafting technique, Dragon Boat Festival, dragon boat building, Tai O dragon boat water parade and the making of Hong Kong-style milk tea and egg tart. These are all some of the many intangible cultural heritages of Hong Kong rich in social and cultural values.

Among the intangible cultural heritage introduced, Cantonese opera was inscribed onto the first national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006 and the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009. Tai O dragon boat water parade was inscribed onto the third national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011. Hong Kong cheongsam making technique was inscribed onto the fifth national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2021.

HKETO San Francisco also participated in the 2025 Northern California International Dragon Boat Festival which took place on September 20-21 in Foster City, California. The festival drew more than 1000 paddlers racing in the beautiful waters of the Leo J. Ryan Park. Teams in youth, novice and competitive divisions competed in Sprint (250 meters) and regular-distance (500 meters) races.

Apart from cultural heritage, different aspects of Hong Kong from tourist attractions to homegrown Olympic medalists were also introduced to visitors at both festivals.