The story
Hulunbuir Grassland Naadam in Hulunbuir
Hulunbuir stages its own grassland Naadam twice yearly, summer around late July and winter in late December, combining the three traditional Mongolian contests of wrestling, archery and horse racing with camel racing, plough racing and Mongolian chess across three to five days. Rooted in an older aobao sacrificial ceremony, the festival unfolds on some of Inner Mongolia's best-preserved open prairie.
Wrestlers grappling in loose felt vests, archers drawing horn-and-sinew bows, and jockeys as young as seven or eight racing bareback across open grassland are the three contests that Yuan and Ming dynasty tradition fixed into a single format called naadam, Mongolian for entertainment or games, and Hulunbuir stages its own grassland version twice a year rather than once.