About 300 celebrities and representatives from all walks of life in the region attended a grand reception Tuesday to celebratethe Corban Festival, an event marked by some 10 ethnic groups in China like the Hui and Uygur.

Liu Zhong, vice chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region sent season's greetings at the reception to the region's 1.91 million Muslims.

He said Ningxia generated gross domestic product (GDP) of 33 billion yuan in 2002, up 10.2 percent from 2001 and its financial revenues reached 2.64 billion yuan, an increase of 10.6 percent.

Ningxia is a major Muslim-inhabited region in China.

(People's Daily February 12, 2003)