One of the performing groups in the Rio de Janeiro Carnival this year offered a special samba tribute to China, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese state-run news agency says the Império Serrano samba school put on a performance called The Empire of Samba on the China Route.

The report says the samba school is in a part of Rio that has many Chinese merchants, and that the school encouraged Chinese living in Brazil to join in.

The Chinese contestant in the Miss Universe beauty pageant in 2016, Li Zhenying, danced on a float portraying the Lunar New Year celebration in China.

Xinhua quotes Brazilian Association for the Reunification of China President Wang Junxiao as describing the carnival as “a great opportunity to spread our culture among Brazilians”.