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CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Consulate General in Christchurch held a Spring Festival charity dinner on Saturday to raise funds for poverty relief in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The event saw both overseas Chinese and Kiwis actively contributing to China's poverty reduction efforts.

More than 20 auction items, including calligraphy works and paintings by well-known Chinese and Kiwi artists, New Zealand red wines, a table tennis racket used by a Chinese Olympic champion player, among others, were successfully auctioned at high prices.

The fund raised at the dinner, which was attended by more than 260 Chinese people and Kiwis, will be used to fund purchase of breeding sheep and anti-epidemic facilities to support establishing two demonstration sheep farms in two impoverished counties in Yunnan Province.

Chinese Consul General Wang Zhijian, at the charity dinner celebrating the upcoming Year of the Rat, thanked the help New Zealand has been providing for many years.

Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel said in her speech that hundreds of millions of Chinese people having been lifted out of poverty is "something less often talked about" and "more impressive," as the progress has happened in the timeframe of just two generations.