A festival featuring Uygur ethnic culture will run through May 7 at the China Folk Culture Villages theme park, Shenzhen

"The festival is a unique offer for the upcoming weeklong holiday," said Qiu Jiali, a marketing worker of the park.

The holiday will run from Saturday-May 7.

Co-sponsored by Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Tourism Bureau and Shenzhen Municipal Tourism Administration Bureau, the event will allow Shenzheners to experience a culture that is many miles away, according to Qiu. "Xinjiang is faraway and beyond many people's reach. The event will help realize their dream to experience the culture," she said.

Uygur-style singing and dancing, tightrope walks, a bazaar and Uygur cuisine and games will all be featured.

According to a Uygur dancer named Amuer working in the park, Uygur folk dances are distinguished by head and wrist movements, and their clever coordination is enhanced with a typical posture of a tilted head, thrust-out chest and erect waist. A slight shivering or shaking movement is characteristic of Uygur folk dances. The rhythmic and continuous shaking of the knees and the momentary shiver when a movement is changed lend grace and continuity.

Followers of Uygur acrobat named Ahdilik, who established a Guinness World Record by living on a wire 35 meters above the ground for 22 days, will display their collective skills during the festival. Holding long poles and blindfolded, they will walk on a rope dozens of meters above the ground while pausing to jump on the rope. Sometimes they will pretend to lose their balance to give the audience a scare.

The festival will also offer traditional Uygur cuisine as lamb kabob, fried spicy mutton, square noodles in tomato sauce and the round nang, a type of bread which is scrumptious when piping hot, and hard as a rock when cool.

"We'll try to let you eat like you would in Urumqi," said Qiu.

Like in many western Asian countries, Uygur people are Muslims who have bazaar-style markets. A replica bazaar will present Xinjiang specialties like carpets, embroidered caps, Hami melon and different musical instruments.

China Folk Culture Villages

Address: east to the Window of the World, Overseas Chinese Town, Nanshan District

Buses: 101, 105, 204, 113, 223, 311

Editor: Catherine