XINING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- More than 200 poets from around the world gathered Monday by Qinghai Lake in southwest China for poetry readings and cultural exchanges at an international poetry festival.

The 3rd Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival kicked off on Monday

at Qinghai Lake, the country's largest inland salt lake, in the city of Xining, capital of Qinghai Province.

Poets and poetry lovers from 55 countries and regions were there to attend the biennial festival sponsored by Qinghai's provincial government, the Poetry Institute of China, and the Chinese Minority Writers' Society.

The festival, which will last four days, will hold poetry readings and concerts, and also award the winner of the Golden Tibetan Antelope Award, Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova.

The committee of the festival announced Venclova's winning of the award in February.

Venclova is the second winner of the Golden Tibetan Antelope Award which gave its first award to Argentine poet Juan Gelman in 2009.

Poets will also discuss language differences and poetry translation.

The festival was first held in 2007.