People in South China celebrated the annual dog meat festival over the weekend despite mounting protests from animal welfare groups and pet owners.

During the festival - marking the summer solstice on Saturday this year - in Yulin, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, about 2,000 dogs are often consumed.

In the morning, farmers and vendors packed dogs into cages and transported them to the market for selling. The roads were crowded with people, motorbikes and cars.