PHOTOGRAPHER: Fritz Hoffmann
ASSIGNMENT: China portfolio
LOCATION: Maqu, China
DATE: : August 16, 2006
Time: 2:00, August 15, 2006

Carrying the weight of family expectations, a young Tibetan jockey rides his horse through a shower of their prayer notes, which have been bet on him to win the 2000-meter high altitude race during the horse festival on the grass plains at Maqu, Gansu.The Maqu grasslands are the biggest natural meadow in Asia.

The event, organized by the Maqu County Party committee and Maqu County government, the third year in a row, is to promote Maquâ??Ã?ôs tourism. According to Yang Yaojing, Maqu County Party Committee Publicity chief, â??Ã?úThe Maqu County government wants to promote tourism. Maqu has three specialties: Maqu is one of the sources of the Yellow River, so called the First Curve of the Yellow River; Gesar is the legendary first king of Tibet, and in the epic itâ??Ã?ôs said that Gesar once lived in Maqu, so Maqu is the cradle of the Gesar culture; and here is also the biggest natural grassland in Asia. With these three specialties, the county government wanted to resume the horseracing festival, which is described in the epic as a platform to promote Maqu. This is the third year and we are making some progress. We see more and more tourists, both from the Han territories and abroad, come to Maqu. The racers come from all the Tibetan areas in the three provinces, which is also described in the epic.â??Ã?ù

Sahe Town, Maqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu, China
Name: 3rd Maqu Gesar The Horseracing Event
Contact: Maqu County Party Committee: 86-941-612-1034, Maqu County Government: 86-941-612-1652 Yang Jingyao: 86-138-9396-6689