MOJIANG -- Nearly 1,000 pairs of twins gathered in China Friday to sing, dance and celebrate an annual festival of their own.

Two pairs of foreign twins attend international twin festival in Mojiang county, southwest China's Yunnan province, on Friday, May 1, 2009. [Xinhua]

The twins attending this year's three-day event came from China, the United States, Russia, India and Singapore. The youngest twins are eight months old, while the oldest are more than 80 years old, said organizers of the event in Mojiang, an autonomous county of the Hani ethnic group in the southwestern Yunnan province.

Yulia and Victoria, two slim beautiful girls from Russia, stood out as they beamed and posed for photos.

"It's a delight to celebrate our own festival," they said through an interpreter. "The Chinese are so hospitable and the traditional costumes here in Yunnan are so beautiful."

Sisters Li Mengjiao and Li Mengkui, 10, from Yunnan province were wearing their best: the scarlet gowns, white shirts and pearl-decorated hats favored by the Bai ethnic group.

The Bai are known as good singers and dancers and the Li sisters were no exception. They smiled widely for the cameras and chatted like friends with twins from other Chinese provinces.

Mojiang county has hosted five international twin festivals since 2005. It is known in China as "the land of twins" because the county of 350,000 residents has more than 1,000 pairs of twins.

A pair of identical wells in Hexi Village of the county are said to contain "magic water" that enables women to conceive twins.

Russian twin brothers Mark and Gleb have attended three of the five events and said they would come again. "This year we've met more twins than ever before."

This year's event opened Friday and will close Sunday.

A forest park in the suburbs of Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province, also hosted a twins' festival Friday. About 200 pairs of twins, children and adults, had fun by competing in singing, mountain climbing and eating watermelons.