Rice Dumplings       The story of Qu Yuan shows us the legend of a tasty glutinous rice dumpling called Zongzi, a popular speciality consumed during the Dragon Boat Festival. According to the tale, the spirit of Qu Yuan appeared before a group of fishermen, crying out to them that he was starving because a dragon was eating his rice offerings.     The offerings consisted of bamboo tubes filled with glutinous rice. In order to prevent the dragon from stealing them, Qu Yuan ordered the tubes to be closed with lily leaves and tied with multi－colored threads.     Today's Zongzi is made similarly, with a serving of rice wrapped in leaves and tied together with string. The way the string is wound and knotted tells what ingredients are inside.     There are many different kinds of Zongzi, each with its own particular flavor, shape, and type of leaf for wrapping. Zongzi is usually four－sided with pointed, rounded ends, or in pyramid shapes. Sometimes it is in the shape of a cone or cylinder. The glutinous rice mixture is wrapped in leaves of palm or bamboo. Bamboo－leaf Zongzi is a speciality of South China.     As for flavor, the Beijing style is the sweetest, with coarse bean paste. Guangdong Zongzi is either sweet－tasting, with walnut, date or bean, or salty with filling ham, egg, meat, roast chicken.