Beijing, Nov 15: North China's inner Mongolia autonomous region has held the country's first camel beauty contest, attended by nearly 100 fully dressed up camels, a report said today. Held as part of the first international camel festival in Alxa League in inner Mongolia, the unique beauty contest became the highlight of the event.
According to organizers, winners elected by the judges, who were mainly experienced camel raisers, should have good appearance - shiny hair and upright humps, and should be good dressers - wearing beautiful halters and saddles in a proper way.
Dubbed the "camel hometown", Alxa League boasts one third of China's camels and is the main habitat in the world of Bactrian camels, which are famous for their double humps.
The two-humped Bactrian camel is indigenous to Mongolia and was domesticated some 3,000 years ago.
The dry weather over the past few years, however, has deteriorated the grassland ecological condition of Alxa League, which has led to the number of camels dropping to the current 68,000 from 250,000 in the 1980s, Xinhua news agency reported.
The festival sponsors said through this competition, they wanted to attract more attention towards the Bactrian camels.
"We want the government to set up a natural reserve and a genetic database for Bactrian camels which would stabalise population of the species, while promoting the development of camel product enterprises," an official of Alxa League said.
Bureau Report