At Tianzi Dock, Yueju Opera, the calling card of Guangzhou wherever there are Chinese overseas, offered the boats' many passengers yet another entree into “Colourful Guangzhou” and its culture.

By absorbing the creams of varied folk arts, Yueju Opera has integrated them with the best of other operas to create an artform that uses realistic performance and song based on people's own lives over decades and decades of local history to continually enrich the lives of those watching and performing today.

At the fourth waypoint, from Dayuanshuaifu Dock to Zhongda Memorial Arch, 20 children painted a long scroll depicting life in the “City of Five Goats” as the boats passed by while under the Arch area, residents kicked shuttlecocks, demonstrated their ballroom dancing skills and shadow-boxed to underline the pride Guangzhou citizens take in their free time as well as in their work time.

At Dashtou Dock, modern Guangzhou greeted the boats with a flower festival and fashion show that highlighted the city's hospitality as host city of the Games and emphasised the vigor of its younger residents as they move into the second decade of the 21st century.

With a riot of colorful flowers as a backdrop, dancers and models showed off modern Guangzhou fashion and dance to reveal an energetic, happy and harmonious outlook for the future.

At Xinghai Concert Hall Square a folk variety show and percussion performance wrapped the athletes and officials, in their brightly lit boats, in the culture and traditions of the Lingnan region of the mighty Pearl River.

Dances of lions, dragons and “qilin” legendary animals, combined with martial arts performances, percussion and opera, all merged into a rollicking, unforgettable celebration of the Asian Games, the athletes and the people of Guangzhou.

An hour and 17 minutes after embarking at White Swan Bay, the boats' passengers arrived at Haixinsha Island, greeted with joyous music and dance.

All the passengers then prepared to join the nearly 30,000 spectators in the “ship” “Harmony” for the artistic performances or for the Parade of Athletes.

(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2010)