Ordos Nadam Festival

Ordos hosts one of Inner Mongolia's more prominent stagings of Nadam, the Mongolian tradition of wrestling, archery, and horse racing with roots over two thousand years old, typically gathering on the grasslands each July and August. The city's 2010 Ordos International Nadam Congress was described as one of the largest and most influential Nadam gatherings in the tradition's history, the same year UNESCO recognized Nadam as intangible cultural heritage.

Eriin Gurvan Nadam, the three manly games of wrestling, archery, and horse racing, trace back through more than two thousand years of Mongolian tradition, originating in activities tied to military training and to aobao ceremonial stone-heap worship rather than being created as spectator entertainment.