Dragging through the mud can be fun, after all

Recently, 20 couples from Punan towns in Songjiang District gathered on Xinbang Town's mud football field for a day of fun and games, including sand racing, wife-carrying in the mud and a mud battle.

Players warmed up with an icebreaker game called "Reporting Numbers." Some couples demonstrated rapid responses, while others humorously misinterpreted the rules, much to the amusement of the judges.

The first major event was a sand race. Husbands eagerly lined up at the starting line, ready to take off at the signal. Wives cheered from the sidelines, filming the scene on their phones.

"Running in the sand felt like being a kid again," remarked Zhang Lei, one of the competitors.

The day's highlight was the wife-carrying competition. Wives hopped on their husbands' backs, only to be covered in muck by the end.

"I last carried my wife during our wedding. We got muddy, but it was so much fun," said Shen Jian, the winner.

This event served as a warm-up for the 2024 Shanghai Songjiang Lotus Festival.

To enhance the community's recreational life, Xinbang Town will organize more muddy fun, such as football, parent-child activities and tug-of-war.

The lotus festival runs until October 6, and it includes 176 mu of themed zones as well as a 44-mu lotus viewing zone with over 1,200 varieties of flowers.