Muslims celebrated the event in the cities of Beijing, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Henan.

Niujie Mosque, one of the biggest mosques in Beijing, hosted resident Muslims from Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Turkey and other Asian and African countries.

Eid al-Adha also called the 'Festival of Sacrifice', is the second of two Islamic holidays celebrated worldwide each year (the other being Eid al-Fitr).

It honors the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God’s command. Before Abraham could sacrifice his son, God provided a lamb to sacrifice instead.

There are around 35,000 mosques in China with some of them dating back to more than one thousand years.