One thousand drones took to the skies above Hong Kong harbour this week to celebrate the start of the Dragon Boat Festival, a spirited holiday commemorating the poet Qu Yuan, that dominates the waterways of China’s reclaimed financial city.

On the mainland, too, an estimated 110 million domestic tourists descended on coastal centres such as Foshan City and Yueyang City over the three-day break to eat, party and take in the spectacle of thousands of wooden boat races.