The Best Festivals and Celebrations

Saka Dawa, held throughout the Tibetan world, celebrates the Buddha passing ctix and thus attaining nirvana. It's held on the 8th to 15th days of the fourth lunar month, with religious dancing, mass chanting and "sunning the Buddha" -- the public display of giant sanctified silk portraits.

Ice & Snow Festival (Harbin): Not so much a festival as an extended citywide exhibition, Harbin's Ice and Snow Festival runs from December to March every year and is without doubt the northeast's top winter attraction. The festival centers around hundreds of elaborate ice and snow sculptures, frosty reproductions of everything from Tian'an Mén to Elvis.

Sanyuè Jié (Dàli): This once-religious festival celebrated by the Bái people in mid-April/early May now features 5 days and nights of considerably more secular singing, dancing, wrestling, horse-racing, and large-scale trading. This is a rare opportunity to see not only the Bái, but a number of Yúnnán's other minorities, gathering together in one of the most beautiful and serene settings in the foothills of the Green Mountains (Cang Shan).

Kurban Bairam (Kashgar): Celebrations are held in Muslim communities across China, but in Kashgar they involve feats of tightrope-walking in the main square and wild dancing outside the Idkah Mosque. The 4-day festival is held 70 days after the breaking of the fast of Ramadan, on the 10th day of the 12th month (Dhul-Hijjah) in the Islamic calendar. It falls on February 1, 2004, and annually shifts backwards by 11 days.

Miáo New Year Festival (Xijiang, Lángdé): The Miáo celebrate many festivals, but one of the biggest blowouts is the occasion of the Miáo New Year, usually around December. The celebration features songs, dances, bullfights, and lúsheng competitions, not to mention Miáo women gorgeously bedecked in silver headdresses engaging in various courtship rituals.

Wéifang International Kite Festival: Thousands of kites take to the skies for 2 days in April in one of the world's largest kite-flying galas. You can simply watch, of course, but the Chinese claim the kite as their invention, so there's no better time and place to pick up the end of the string yourself.

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