In southwest Sichuan, a trip to the lake is a winter's treat

"There are more than 10 kinds of fish in the lake such as carp, silver carp and grass carp. Some of the fish can weigh as much as 15 kilograms," says Hua Qipin, a 77-year-old fisherman who has been fishing for more than 40 years in the lake.

Liangshan has China's largest concentration of Yi people and is home to nearly 3 million of them.

Latest statistics show that China has nearly 9 million Yi people living in the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The most famous attraction of Liangshan is the torch festival of Xichang, the capital of the prefecture.

The torch festival is a celebration of ethnic groups in Southwest China on the 24th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar.

This is when people of the Yi, Bai, Naxi and other groups remember their histories through the three-day festival.

The celebration fell in August this year.

The Yi people worship fire and there is a legend about how the torch festival came into being.

It is believed that long long ago, a god sent a subordinate to collect taxes from a local in Liangshan.

The local was not in and the subordinate then asked his family to give him food and liquor.