An opening ceremony was held for the annual Naadam Festival in Hohhot, North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, July 23, 2016.
More than 5,000 ethnic Mongolians and tourists celebrated the start of the nomadic Naadam festival on Saturday, with traditional dancing, fire worship ritual and a horse riding show.
“Nadam” means entertainment and games. Naadam Festival used to be a traditional sports meeting held by Mongolian people to celebrate their harvest. Traditional Mongolian sports include horse racing, wrestling, archery as well as Mongolian chess. Inner Mongolia government has been hosting the fair annually since 1990 to boost tourism and communicate Mongolian culture.