Natural Sound In a celebration of one of it's most ancient cultures, the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, played host to a feast of exotic music, food and handicrafts on Saturday. Tens of thousands of people flocked to the city to join in the Hakka festival - an annual festival to honour the country's third biggest tribe. The festival, now in it's third year, has become the biggest of it's kind in the world. At the sound of the third gong, it was Taipei's mayor, Chen Shui-bien, who this year had the honour of officially opening the annual Hakka festival. Now one of the biggest festivals of it's kind in the world, the celebration honours the Hakka people - one of Taipei's olders and largest tribes. Despite the scorching heat, people came in their droves. Tens of thousands packed Taipei's main Hakka block, to join in the festivities and celebrate the country's rich culture. Among the crowd, were people from other traditional Taiwanese tribes and government officials. The festivities included marches laden with colourful flags, and traditional Hakka dancers and drummers. This is the third year the Taipei government has organised the event, which has now become an annual feature on the city's social calendar. Officials hope festivals like this will increase awareness and understanding of the rich, vibrant tribal cultures throughout Taiwan. One of the major drawcards at Saturday's festival was the aroma of traditional Hakka food like rice cakes. Hakka women kept a watchful eye on these young cooks as they tried their hand at making traditional Hakka rice cakes and dumplings. The Hakka tribe dates back to more than a thousand years during the time of the Wei dynasty - over the years they eventually moved to Taiwan from Kwangtng province in China. Hakka people are well known for their lives of simple pleasures and dilligient work ethic. They also hold sacred their distinctive culture and language and use events like the Hakka festival to preserve it. The Hakka language is one of the main dialects in China. And the good news is that the ancient tribe has no fears of dying out with many traditional Hakka people living in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1ac1e5957ae05da8804b6666355e1a22 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 30 Jul 2015
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