BEIJING, May 31 -- Moderate to heavy rain will sweep across central and east China in the coming two days, China's meteorological authority said on Saturday.

In particular, some regions in the provinces of Henan, Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi will see torrential rain, accompanied by thunderstorms, the National Meteorological Center forecasted, alerting tourists to take precautions as millions of trips were expected during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday that started on Saturday.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu Festival, is traditionally celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. It falls on June 2 this year.

The festival commemorates famous ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan. Chinese people eat zongzi, a rice dumpling, and race dragon boats.