China will continue to organize innovative activities to rally its youth, a Chinese official said Monday at the country's first youth carnival held in Hainan Province.

Zhao Yong, official with the Central Committee of Communist Youth League of China, China's youth authority, said it will keep trying to introduce youth activities, especially entertaining ones, which interest the young people more.

"A carnival is a good youth activity," said Zhao. "It is better than our old forms."

In the past, the government gathered young people to attend lectures, have moral lessons or watch serious movies.

"Our youth activities used to have too much emphasis on education and give too much sense of responsibility," said Guan Chenghua, an official of Beijing's youth authority.

"Activities were often designed to arouse our youth or move them to burst into tears," said Guan.

However, the five-day carnival this year is different. A host of less serious, fun activities are being held in more than twelve cities and counties in the province.

"We borrowed the concept of a carnival from the West to give our youth a time to enjoy themselves and to vent their energy," said Zhao.

Besides the carnival, China has hosted a number of youth activities in the second half of this year, including October's Fashion Week held in Ningbo and the "My Idol" contest held in Shenzhen this August, in which the young voted for their favorite Chinese star.

Innovative youth activities can also be found on the Internet. In September, the central youth league hosted a special writing contest in which contestants send in their writings through mobile phone short messages.

Just last month, the State Administration of Press and Publications announced that the country would invest one to two billion yuan (120.48 million-240.96 million US dollars) to develop more than 100 "healthy" online games, in a bid to guide China's large number of young online gamers.

Source: Xinhua