The Dong New Year Festival and Eighth Cultural Tourism Festival of the Dong Ethnic Group were held in Liping county of Guizhou province on Dec 18.

Villagers and visitors, 10,288 in number, took part in the Dong Chorus in the opening ceremony to celebrate the Dong New Year, setting a new Guinness World Record.

More than 10,000 Dong people perform the Dong Chorus in Liping county, Guizhou province, on Dec 18. [Photo by Zhou Yuangang/Xinhua]

Celebrated on Nov 1-3 in the lunar calendar, the traditional New Year of the Dong ethnic group was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2011. During the festival, Dong families gather together in traditional attire to greet relatives and friends.

Apart from the Dong Chorus, the county also hosted an exhibition of intangible cultural heritage items and various culturally-rich activities of the Dong ethnic group.

Home to a rich Dong ethnic culture, Liping county boasts one world-class, two national and 21 provincial cultural intangible heritages. It has two famous historic and cultural villages, three characteristic villages of ethnic minorities and 93 Chinese traditional villages.

Data show that the county can expect to receive 4.53 million tourists and earn tourism income of 3.8 billion yuan ($577.56 million) in 2017. As the host county of the 13th Conference on Guizhou Tourism Industry Development in 2018, Liping will promote poverty alleviation through tourism. The county is striving to bring in more than 10 billion yuan of tourism income and help 13,000 people escape poverty by the end of 2019.