The fourth Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival opened in Xining, capital of Northwest China's Qinghai province on Thursday.

The festival is themed "Poets' Individual Writing and the Sociality of Poetry" and has attracted 200 poets from more than 50 countries.

The fourth Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival opened in Xining, capital of Northwest China's Qinghai province on Thursday. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

It was jointly organized by the provincial government and the Poetry Institute of China and will last to August 12.

Jidi Majia, minister of the Publicity Department of the provincial Party committee, announced the beginning of the activity. Majia is an Yi ethnic native from Sichuan province and also a poet who holds a post at the institute.

Qinghai province lies on the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in west China, bordering Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region. The source of the Yangtze, Yellow, and Lancang rivers, it has an area of 720,000 square kilometers, the fourth largest in China.

With an average altitude of about 3,000 meters above sea level, the province is home to some fragile plateau ecological reserves. The 5.7 million inhabitants comprise 21 percent of Tibetans, and some Tu, Hui, Salar and Mongolian ethnic groups.

Qinghai Lake is the largest lake in China. It is a salt water lake lying in the northeast of Qinghai. Another major international event here is the Tour of Qinghai Lake, which has been held annually since 2002.