Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Congjiang county of Southwest China's Guizhou province to watch bullfighting -- a celebration before the Chinese New Year which falls on Feb 15 this year.

Bullfighting is a traditional activity for local people to celebrate harvest and holidays for people of the Miao ethnic group. It's a popular activity and sometimes includes interesting gambling when people bet on which bull will win the fight.

Some bulls are painted with special marks for identification and some are decorated with a piece of red cloth on their horn. In the past, bulls were expensive for rural people and normally a bull was owned by the whole village.

People gather in Congjiang county of Guizhou province to watch the fierce bullfights on Jan 31. [Photo by Wu Dejun/gz.xinhuanet.com]