Folk artists perform intangible culture heritage items during a celebration at a park in Chengshan Town to welcome Chinese new year, on Janaury 18, 2022 in Rongcheng, Shandong Province of China. (Photo by Yang Zhili/VCG via Getty Images)

A firefighter passes through fire in a firefighting drill on December 7, 2021 in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province of China. (Photo by Zeng Peng/VCG via Getty Images)

Models showcase collection by designer Zhang Kejia during the 2021 Kunming Fashion Week on December 15, 2021 in Kunming, Yunnan Province of China. (Photo by Li Jiaxian/China News Service via Getty Images)

Located in Kunshan, eastern China, the restaurant relies on over a dozen machines for tasks such as greeting customers, waiting on tables and cooking basic meals. The eatery becomes the third café in the world to rely on the use of robot employees, potentially giving a glimpse into how future businesses could operate. Photo: This photo taken on August 13, 2014, shows a robot carrying food to customers in a restaurant in Kunshan. It's more teatime than Terminator – a restaurant in China is electrifying customers by using more than a dozen robots to cook and deliver food. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

Chinese women ride a bicycle together on a street September 10, 2014 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Child models present creations at Dong Wenmei T100 Children's Collection during China Fashion Week in Beijing October 29, 2014. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

It’s a tradition that dates back hundreds of years, where two stallions fight over a female to ring the Chinese new year. And when it’s the Year of the Horse, the fights are considered to be even more significant. They’re held in small villages across southern China and have been condemned by animal rights groups, including Hong-Kong based Animals Asia. But those who participate in the events defend the fights and insist they take care of the animals.

Growing cities, overuse of fertilizers and factory wastewater have degraded China's water supplies to the extent that half the nation's rivers and lakes are severely polluted. China aims to spend $850 billion to improve filthy water supplies over the next decade, but even such huge outlays may do little to reverse damage caused by decades of pollution and overuse in Beijing's push for rapid economic growth. Photo: Fishermen row a boat in the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 19, 2009. (Photo by Jianan Yu/Reuters)