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The unique Nationalities' Traditional Sports Activities Exhibition hall houses over 300 photos and 500 articles. It enlivens several hundred traditional sports activities of various ethnic groups, which rooted in the history of the ethnic groups, embedded in the local folk customs and mostly performed in traditional festivals, have been well loved by the native people.

The Mongolian people living on China's northern grasslands are known for their valiance and openness. In August of every year the Mongolians hold the nadam fair, a gala annual meeting in which ethnic sports programs including Mongolian-style wrestling and horse races are performed. Mongolian-style wrestling differs from wrestling of other ethnicities in that the number of contestants in a Mongolian-style wrestling match must be a power of two and that the contest follows a single elimination system. The contestants wear a wrestling suit decorated with shining copper or silver nails and a sash made of black, red and yellow cloth. Formal wrestling competitions are held to the accompaniment of singing by old people.

Due to their special living environments, other northern minority people like archery, hunting, wrestling and horse races. In winter, their favorite activities are skating, skiing and sleigh races.

The over 20 minority ethnic groups distributed over Tibet, Yunnan and Guizhou in southwestern China also have special sports programs. Tibetans' favorite sport is the horse race. Their first horse race meeting can be traced back to the year 779, which, lasting half a month, was held to celebrate the completion of a temple. Today, the Tibetan horse races take three forms: long distance races, short distance jogging and empty horse races. The long distance race is usually held on a straight path six to ten kilometers long, in a pastoral region. Mostly the contestants are boys from 11 to 12 years old. The length for short distance jogging is about three to five kilometers. In a short distance horse race, it is prohibited for horses jump with all four legs simultaneously. The length of the empty horse race is about 10 kilometers.

Today, a national sports meeting of minority ethnic groups is held once every four years, providing an opportunity to train more minority athletes and promoting the development of health-building activities into real sports events.

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Written by our column writer Ye Qinfa.

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