As this year's Dragon Boat Festival is just around the corner, the sales of zongzi, a time-honored delicacy for Chinese people, is on the rise across China in more varied varieties and volumes. The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, falls on May 31 this year. It is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar to commemorate ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan from the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.). Zongzi is also an essential part of this Duanwu tradition. This savory dish is a glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. At a farmer's market in Kunming City in southwest China's Yunnan Province, the specialty zongzi of the Buyi ethnic minority group in the neighboring Guizhou Province has become popular with local customers. A zongzi seller told China Central Television (CCTV) that the shop sold more than 800 kilograms of this seasonal food per day, and was gearing up for increasing demand. "Four or five tons of fresh leaves may be arriving in Kunming tomorrow," he said. The surging demand for zongzi has also boosted the sales of relevant materials at a bustling wholesale market for meat, poultry, and eggs in Ningbo City in east China's Zhejiang Province. "Pork belly is currently the best-selling product because it's the season for making zongzi. It's now 12 yuan per jin [about 3.3 U.S. dollars per kilogram]. Usually, we sell seven or eight pigs a day, but now we sell more than a dozen," said Zhou Qingguo, a meat wholesaler. In addition to meat, the sales of salted duck eggs -- one of the local must-eat delicacies for Duanwu celebrations and an important ingredient for the filling of zongzi -- continue to climb as the holiday approaches. A stall owner said that around 11,000 salted duck eggs were sold daily, double the normal amount. Restaurants in Shanghai have seamlessly integrated cured pork with fava beans and dried scallops to make zongzi, gaining the favor of discerning eaters. "The daily sales of zongzi have generally exceeded 5,000. This year, we introduced a special zongzi made with Iberico pork. These have sold out every day at around 10 o'clock," Yao Jianhua, head of the dim sum department of a restaurant in Shanghai. SHOTLIST: Kunming City, Yunnan Province, southwest China - Recent 1. Various of food shops at farmer's market; zongzi for sale; 2. Various of food shop selling zongzi of Buyi ethnic minority group; 3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) zongzi seller (name not given): "Four or five tons of fresh leaves may be arriving in Kunming tomorrow."; 4. Various of customers buying zongzi; Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, east China - May 21, 2025 5. Various of stalls, customers at wholesale market; 6. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhou Qingguo, meat wholesaler (ending with shot 7): "Pork belly is currently the best-selling product because it's the season for making zongzi. It's 12 yuan per jin [about 3.3 U.S. dollars per kilogram] now. Usually, we sell seven or eight pigs a day, but now we sell more than a dozen."; 7. Various of meat stall, customers; 8. Stall selling salted duck eggs; 9. Various of salted duck eggs; 10. Customer buying salted duck eggs; Shanghai, China - Recent 11. People waiting to buy zongzi; 12. Various of customers buying zongzi; zongzi for sale; 13. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Yao Jianhua, head, dim sum department, local restaurant (ending with shot 14): "The daily sales of zongzi have generally exceeded 5,000. This year, we introduced a special zongzi made with Iberico pork. These have sold out every day at around 10 o'clock."; 14. Various of customers buying zongzi; restaurant staff packing zongzi; 15. Various of zongzi. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]