Hainan hosts cultural forum to celebrate Sanyuesan Festival

A forum on Li and Miao culture was held in Ledong, South China’s Hainan province, on Sunday, to celebrate Sanyuesan Festival, a traditional event for the Li and Miao ethnic groups that falls on the third day of the third month in the lunar Chinese calendar.

As an important part of the Sanyuesan celebrations, the forum has been organized to offer a platform for experts to discuss and study the history of exchanges and communications between different ethnic groups in Hainan, and to promote research on the country’s ethnic groups to strengthen the consciousness of the Chinese national community.

The total population of Hainan is over 10.2 million, among them around 1.5 million belong to the Li ethnic group - the original inhabitants of Hainan Island - and about 80,000 belong to the Miao group, according to official statistics.

The main venues of this year's Sanyuesan festivities took place from April 22 to 24 in Ledong Li autonomous county and Wuzhishan city. Celebrations were also held in other cities and counties across the tropical island province.