A herdsman performs during the 2nd camel Nadam fair in Alxa, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Dec. 27, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Lei)

HOHHOT, China, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- A winter Naadam featuring camel racing, camelback archery and camel polo events kicked off Thursday in Alex Left Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Around ten-thousand camels with their jockeys gathered around from Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Gansu and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to compete in this three-day event.

The camel race included 2000m, 5000m, 8000m and 4x2000m relay races. The organizers also held camel beauty contest and camel milking competition.

Herdsman Yun Xiangfu arrived here two days ago, in order to give his ten red bactrian camels a good rest.

"I lived two hundred miles away, so I hired trucks to carry my camels and their forage. They are here for the camel beauty contest." Yun said.

Known as the hometown of camels, Alex League contained 116 thousand camels, one third of the country's total.

In the past decade, the league made efforts to protect camels' natural environment, as well as develop nutritious foods from camels' meat, milk and blood.

The local husbandry industries have been developed and herdsmen's incomes have been raised.