The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province had a launch ceremony for its month-long campaign to promote ethnic unity, at Zhaolin Park, on July 22, with more than 1,000 people from various ethnic groups taking part with court dances, yangko (a popular rural folk dance), wrestling, and archery competitions.

A photo exhibition on cultures and souvenirs, as well as documents on laws and regulations featuring local ethnic minorities attracted more than 5,000 people joining the activity.

In addition, a blind date party and some charity clinics were also part of the ceremony at the park.

Qu Lei, deputy mayor of the city attended the event, and other officials including Gu Fulin and Ge Xidong were also present.

The city has spent 1.5 billion yuan ($241.93 million) on ethnic groups’ livelihood since the start of the 12th Five-year Plan, in 2011, and has revised regulations to protect their rights.

Harbin has many ethnic groups living around it, totaling about 600,000, or around 6-percent of its total population. Those with more than 10,000 people include the Manchu, Koreans, Hui and Mongolians.