Yushu Horse Race is a traditional festival with a long history, which can be traced to the period of Tufan.
Time: July 25-August 1
Address: Yushu, Qinghai Province
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Yushu Horse Race is a traditional festival with a long history, which can be traced to the period of Tufan. Every year, from July 25 to August 1, the horse race festival will be held in Jiegu Grassland of Yushu Zhou. Thousands of colorful tents, beautiful traditional folk costumes of Kham Tibetan and well-known songs and dances of Yushu Zhou are the three spectacles of Horse Race Festival. During the season, Jiegu Grassland has memorable landscape with clean water and charming flowers. Dance party and commodity fair will also be held in the festival. People are all in colorful traditional dresses and set their tents on the grassland. They attend many kinds of activities, such as horse race, yak race, equestrian spot, shoot, dance and clothes display.
People in Yushu Zhou live with horse race. Yushu horse race is the greatest festival in Western part of China, especially the “great festival” held every 3 years. It attracts about 100,000 people coming here. Before the festival, the local people come to the grassland to put up tents in advance. In the tents, you can find everything you want, like food, clothes, toys, CD and jewelry, etc.
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On the first day of the festival, people from different places tour together the whole festival site and then ox race is held. Different areas of the site have different activities. You can choose what you like. On the second day, it is time to chant sutras and it is a sprit feast for people. In the afternoon, there has a Hercules competition. On the third day, people display their beautiful and unique dresses. At night, people surround the bonfire to dance and sing, celebrating the great festival. The following days will held many kinds of races.
At the beginning of the horse race, there is a sacrifice ceremony. People use a very traditional way of burning the mulberry leaves to pray victory. After that, some cultural performances will be shown. The main activities are horse-back act, horse race, yak race, dance show, and other wonderful performance. During the horse race festival, the commodity fairs will be held.
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Yushu Horse Race Festival is a good chance to maintain and develop the excellent traditions of ethnic culture and it displays a strong tinge of folk customs. Therefore, it enjoys a good reputation all over the world.
Tips
The first three days are the essence of the festival, so don’t miss them.