Retired residents rehearse a folk dance at Fu'an community in Xing'an League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Sept. 19, 2026. (Xinhua/Li Yue)

　　HOHHOT, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- As the music of the morin khuur, a traditional horsehead fiddle, fills the community center, Wang Jinrong rolls her shoulders, raises her arms and turns to the rhythm, leading her fellow dancers through the routine.

　　Wang, an ethnic Mongolian and retired resident of the Fu'an community in Xing'an League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has been a member of the community's dance group for more than two years.

　　The community is home to more than 9,000 residents, including people from Han, Mongolian and Hui ethnic groups.

　　Xing'an League is home to residents from 40 ethnic groups, with ethnic minorities accounting for about half of its permanent population of more than 1.3 million.

　　On May 1, 1947, the people of Inner Mongolia established the autonomous government of the region in Xing'an, which marked the founding of China's first provincial-level ethnic autonomous region under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

　　In the run-up to this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, Wang and her teammates performed a Mongolian dance, made traditional Chinese mooncakes and took photos together at a celebration held in the community.

　　"Mongolian dance has a certain strength to it, and the rhythm is really strong," said Wang Liyan, a Han resident who has been part of the dance group. She added that they follow online videos to learn traditional dances of multiple ethnic groups, including Mongolian, Uyghur and Korean dances.

　　But the group does much more than dance.