The 3rd annual Flower Festival in Laoye Mountain will be held in Datong County, China's northwestern Qinghai Province on July 19-24, local officials announced Sunday in a news conference in Beijing.

Two folk singers from Datong County sing the flower folk song at the Beijing news conference on June 3, 2012, to announce the 3rd annual Flower Festival in Laoye Mountain. [Photo / CnDG Jiao Meng]

Organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County, this festival also includes a panel consisting top officials and industry leaders to discuss ways to develop modern agriculture and improve farmers’ livelihood in regions inhabited by ethnic minorities.

Mi Zhanliang, vice governor of Datong County, gave an introduction to the Laoye Mountain Flower Festival. "Every morning from April to September, more than one thousand people climb Laoye Mountain to pay their respect to the mountain god and sing the flower song together," he said. "The festival is expected to attract thousands of visitors."

The flower songs are a kind of folk song popular in Northwestern China; the songs are usually love songs young lovers sing to each other to express their affections. Its history could be traced to as early as Ming Dynasty (AD 1368 - AD 1644). Every spring and summer, people from every ethnic minority group gather in the mountains and sing the flower songs together.

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