800 watermelons balanced in southern Taiwan

南台灣立800個西瓜

Pingtung swaps eggs for watermelons at Dragon Boat Festival event


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Pingtung County’s Jiadong Township held a public event that balanced 800 watermelons during the Dragon Boat Festival on Monday (June 10).

Balancing items such as eggs during this traditional holiday is believed to bring participants peace and harmony in the new year. While Jiadong Township is not a major watermelon-producing area, it produces 80% of Taiwan’s watermelon seedlings.

The first watermelon balancing activity was held in Jiadong Township six years ago. The activity moved to Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard in 2020, though it was suspended during the pandemic, per UDN.

Jiadong Township restarted the event this year, and all 400 advanced registration spaces were booked within half an hour. Due to overwhelming demand, event organizers created more opportunities for groups of three people to take part.

Jiadong Township Chief Lai Wen-yi (賴文一) said balancing eggs is a traditional activity during the Dragon Boat Festival, though locals choose an agricultural specialty of the area to attract tourists. Lai said the villagers are proud of the local watermelon industry and hope to stimulate consumer interest.

Watermelons weighing between 25 and 30 kilograms were brought in from Hualien. Each participant was given watermelon seedlings to take home.

Organizers said watermelons grow rapidly, approaching the size of an adult hand in just two weeks.

Jiadong Township is known as the source of Taiwanese watermelons, as several villages have perfected the technique of grafting watermelon onto pumpkin seedlings to improve resistance to cold weather and increase sweetness. Watermelon seedlings from this area are temperature-resistant and can grow throughout the four seasons in large fallow areas such as river beds.

Unfortunately, the population of Jiadong Township is rapidly aging, as this activity is meant to attract not only consumer interest but young people.