Huang Rongbiao, secretary of the Party committee of the Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county, makes a speech before the start of the Huanjiang Dazzling Night, on Jan 13. [Photo by Lan Caiyun/Xinhua]

A dance performance at the evening party in Huanjiang county [Photo by Lan Caiyun/Xinhua]

Chen Yongxin, a popular singer from the TV program “The Voice of China”, performs at the evening party. [Photo by Lan Caiyun/Xinhua]

On the evening of Jan 13, the ‘Huanjiang Dazzling Night’ was held at the Ethnic Cultural Square in the Guangxi Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county.

The activity was sponsored by Huanjiang’s county Party committee and the county people’s government, and undertaken by the Huanjiang Huaxin Company. The event aimed to enhance the popularity, reputation and influence of Huanjiang, and promote local tourism and economic development by displaying the karst ecological landscape found in Huanjiang’s World Natural Heritage site as well as its ethnic ecological and cultural charm.

Performances of dance, singing, magic shows and acrobatics gained rapturous applause from the audience, who appeared to be excited by the appearance of Chinese singers such as Chen Yongxin and Tan Lina.

Huanjiang county is the only county in which the Maonan ethnic group resides in China and has a total population of 330,000. The county’s ethnic population totals 313,000, and includes the Maonan, Zhuang and Yao ethnic groups. Among the total population, 16.2 percent belong to the Maonan ethnic group.

The county is located in the northwestern part of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and has vast open land resources. With a total land area of 4,572 square kilometers, Huanjiang county is the 5th largest county in Guangxi. In June, 2014, Huanjiang’s karst landscape was selected to be one of the World Natural Heritage sites.