Chinese Muslims celebrate Corban festival

Millions of Chinese Muslims celebrated the Corban Festival, or Eid al-Adha, on Sunday.

At Nanguan Mosque in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, thousands of Muslims performed a prayer ritual to observe the major Islamic festival to demonstrate faith and obedience to Allah.

Local Muslims, who enjoy a five-day holiday for the festival, shook hands with one another and expressed good wishes. Sunday also marked the fifth day of the week-long National Holiday.

"The Corban Festival is one of the most important festivals for us Muslims," said Ma Zhongyu, an ethnic Hui in Yinchuan. He attended the ritual with his 9-year-old son.

Ningxia has over 2 million Muslims.

Yang Jie and her family, from northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, celebrated the festival in Ningxia this year, the first time for them to observe it outside their hometown.

"During the National Day holiday, our family is traveling and will visit the largest mosque in each place we visit," said Yang, also of Hui ethnicity.

The festival was also celebrated in other places such as Xinjiang on Sunday.

China has more than 20 million Muslims, mainly living in the provinces and provincial-level regions of Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Henan.