Nepal-China Friendship Dragon Boat Race Festival kicked off on Friday in the lake city of Pokhara, with hundreds of people present at the event.

The organisers said that the festival will boost cultural ties between Nepal and China and could be a prominent product to draw visitors from the northern neighbour.

On the first day of the two-day boat competition, a 200-metre-long race was held. The final 500 metre-long race will be held on Saturday, the organiser said, adding that more than 160 people from Nepal, China and Singapore were taking part in the race.

The boat race was organised as a joint initiative of the Nepal Tourism Board, the Chinese Embassy in Nepal and Pokhara Metropolitan City.

“This kind of festival will strengthen ties between Nepal and China,” said Tourism Minister Sudan Kiranti, inaugurating the event on Friday. “We look forward to increasing the number of tourists from the northern neighbour by organising such events.”

The Chinese players arrived in Pokhara on Wednesday via a chartered flight to participate in the competition.

The festival also featured cultural performances and food exhibitions representing both countries.

Dhan Raj Acharya, mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City, said that they plan to organise such events three times a year – two domestic and one international.

“We hope this kind of festival will boost tourism in Pokhara.”

Pokhara saw more Chinese visitors than Kathmandu, and many Chinese tourist guidebooks list the lakeside city as one of the "Top ten places in the world to see before you die".

Tourism entrepreneurs literally painted the town red. Chinese cuisine started dominating the hotel menus of Pokhara, which once served only Indian and continental dishes.

Chinese arrivals to Nepal crossed the 100,000 mark for the first time in 2013, largely due to improved air links between the two countries. Around 93 percent of Chinese tourists were first-time visitors to Nepal, according to statistics from the Tourism Ministry.

In 2014, Nepal received 123,805 Chinese visitors. Thereon, tourist arrivals started rising steadily, and China saw the strongest growth of 46.8 percent, to 153,633 visitors, in 2018.

The boom, alas, turned to bust almost as fast. The Covid-19 pandemic came, and all the Chinese tourists were gone in a flash.

Most Chinese restaurants in Pokhara are now closed, and the advertisements hanging over their doorways have come down.

Dhananjay Regmi, chief executive officer of the Nepal Tourism Board, said that they have given priority to boosting the number of Chinese tourists. He said that the board has been promoting Nepal in China aggressively. “We hope the dragon boat race festival will encourage more Chinese to visit Nepal in the coming years.”