Herdsmen take part in a horse racing on the prairie at Xilinhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, July 2, 2017. Horses are important in Mongolian culture, which has more than 300 words for horses and a further 200 just for their color. However, riding a motorcycle once took place of horse-riding. The number of horses owned by herdsmen in the region has fallen from 2.4 million in 1975 to less than 700,000 in 2007. Since breeding horses was not profitable, many families sold their horses and bought motorcycles and cars. To preserve the endangered Mongolian horse and inherit the horse culture, protection efforts were made. In 2011, the region set up three breeding bases for Mongolian horses with a total investment of 18 million yuan per year to preserve Mongolian horses. Such protection efforts have seen the number of horses in Inner Mongolia increase 25 percent in a decade, reaching 880,000 last year. Also Horse-related events are also increasing in the region. (Xinhua/Ren Junchuan)
