'Xinjiang Is a Nice Place' opens for a third year

As the song finished, the woman rushed back to her own booth.

It turned out she was a performer from the Changji Hui autonomous prefecture, and was there representing the nationally recognized intangible cultural heritage of Xinjiang shehuo. Her vibrant outfit was traditional Hui attire.

"I don't know how to dance their style (nazikum)," she says, "our cultures are different, but music is universal. We always start dancing when we hear music."

According to Zhong Weishan, the team leader of the performance group from the Changji exhibition area, Xinjiang shehuo is a collective term for various kinds of folk celebrations. It includes the yangko dance, dragon and lion dances, and drum performances, and often incorporates folk tales like Journey to the West.

As the sound of drums was heard, dancers began waving green fans and spinning blue-and-yellow umbrellas embellished with pink decorations. They smiled brightly while performing the yangko, triggering resounding applause.

In addition to their captivating song and dance performances, the Changji exhibition booth also featured aromatic delicacies and decorative steamed buns known as "flower buns", that filled the air with an inviting scent.

Gan Huiqiong, an inheritor of flower bun-making, is good at shaping dough into all kinds of animals and human figures.