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Saturday, November 15, 2003 7:22:50 PM
Camels compete in beauty contest
Contest held in ancient dromedary junction
Saturday, November 15, 2003 Posted: 5:13 PM EST (2213 GMT)
Most beautiful? The camels in the contest were judged by experienced camel herders.
BEIJING, China (AP) -- Shiny hair. Upright humps. Sharp outfits. And definitely no swimsuit competition.
If you're in the market for a beautiful camel, those are apparently the things you might want to consider. And in northern China, they're doing just that -- holding a dromedary beauty contest as part of what is billed as "the first international camel festival."
The beauty competition in the Inner Mongolia region attracted nearly 100 dressed-up camels "as well as more than 2,000 fans," the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday. It didn't specify who the "fans" were or where they came from.
The judges, mostly experienced camel herders, described the criteria for victory to Xinhua: The camels, they said, "should have good appearance -- shiny hair and upright humps -- and should be good dressers wearing beautiful halters and saddles in a proper way."
The contest was held in a community called Alxa League, known as the "camel hometown." It has one-third of China's camels and is the main habitat for the double-humped Bactrian camel, Xinhua said. The two-humped Bactrian is indigenous to Mongolia and was domesticated some 3,000 years ago.
Dry weather in recent years has hurt the area's environment, though, and Xinhua said the number of camels has dropped to 68,000 from 250,000 in the 1980s.
Festival sponsors said they wanted the camel beauty competition to generate more attention for the beasts.
"We hope the government can set up a natural reserve and a genetic database for Bactrian camels to keep a stable population of the species while promoting the development of camel product enterprises," said an Alxa League official, quoted by Xinhua.
Contest held in ancient dromedary junction
Saturday, November 15, 2003 Posted: 5:13 PM EST (2213 GMT)
Most beautiful? The camels in the contest were judged by experienced camel herders.
BEIJING, China (AP) -- Shiny hair. Upright humps. Sharp outfits. And definitely no swimsuit competition.
If you're in the market for a beautiful camel, those are apparently the things you might want to consider. And in northern China, they're doing just that -- holding a dromedary beauty contest as part of what is billed as "the first international camel festival."
The beauty competition in the Inner Mongolia region attracted nearly 100 dressed-up camels "as well as more than 2,000 fans," the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday. It didn't specify who the "fans" were or where they came from.
The judges, mostly experienced camel herders, described the criteria for victory to Xinhua: The camels, they said, "should have good appearance -- shiny hair and upright humps -- and should be good dressers wearing beautiful halters and saddles in a proper way."
The contest was held in a community called Alxa League, known as the "camel hometown." It has one-third of China's camels and is the main habitat for the double-humped Bactrian camel, Xinhua said. The two-humped Bactrian is indigenous to Mongolia and was domesticated some 3,000 years ago.
Dry weather in recent years has hurt the area's environment, though, and Xinhua said the number of camels has dropped to 68,000 from 250,000 in the 1980s.
Festival sponsors said they wanted the camel beauty competition to generate more attention for the beasts.
"We hope the government can set up a natural reserve and a genetic database for Bactrian camels to keep a stable population of the species while promoting the development of camel product enterprises," said an Alxa League official, quoted by Xinhua.
If you don't have the time to do something right, where are you going to find the time to fix it?
-Stephen King
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