Four expats learn to hand-make zongzi from a Chinese local in Yueqing. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Daniel Fomude Achu, a Cameroonian living in the coastal city of Yueqing, East China's Zhejiang province, invited three expat friends to learn to make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) with him from Chinese locals a couple of days before the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on June 14 this year.

Zongzi is a traditional Chinese snack and a staple of the Dragon Boat Festival.

Chinese people offered the four expats detailed, step-by-step guidance on how to hand-make zongzi, which involves rolling reed leaves, filling them with sticky rice, and tying it all together. The expats seemed to enjoy the process.

Achu is currently a manager at the international study department of the Yueqing International Foreign Language School. He has been living in China for over ten years and has a Chinese wife.

"I prefer zongzi filled with salty, fatty meat," Achu told local media reporters in fluent Mandarin, adding that he fell in love with the food the first time he tried it and often shopped for it.

"Rice wrapped up in reed leaves tastes like cake with various fillings. Zongzi is so mysterious and fun for me," he remarked.

Achu also expressed a passion for watching dragon boat races and said he was bummed that this year's races had been cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Achu plans to spend this year's Dragon Boat Festival with family at his mother-in-law's house in Yueqing.

"Every Dragon Boat Festival, my mother-in-law cooks a lot of seafood and zongzi. My hometown is also located by the sea, like Yueqing, so the local cuisine is quite to my taste," Achu said smiling.