The Gangneung Danoje Festival takes place in the town of Gangneung and its surroundings, situated east of the Taebaek Mountain Range on the Korean peninsula. The festival praises the mountain deity and male and female tutelary deities through a shamanistic ritual on Daegwallyeong Ridge, and encompasses traditional music and Odokddegi folk songs, the Gwanno mask drama, oral narrative poetry as well as various popular pastimes. In 2005, when it comes to South Korea's attempt of registration as UNESCO cultural heritage, China claimed the Gangneung Danoje Festival derived from the Chinese Dragonboat Festival, and pursued a joint-registration of Gangneung Danoje Festival and Chinese Dragonboat Festival.

South Korea argued that the Gangneung Danoje Festival is a unique cultural tradition of Korea, completely different from the Chinese Dragonboat Festival, and rejected Chinese claiming for joint-registration. Despite Chinese opposition, UNESCO has registered the Gangneung Danoje Festival as an intangible cultural heritage. Upon registration, the Chinese media blamed on South Korea stealing Chinese culture, and expressed regret and humiliation at losing Chinese Dragonboat Festival to South Korea.