Although Hua'er songs can often be heard almost anywhere at anytime in Qinghai, the most representative way of singing the songs with distinctive folk features is the famous "Hua'er Meeting," which is actually a carnival for the people in Hehuang. The meeting is a spontaneous activity that falls on the fifth and sixth month of the Chinese lunar calendar and which can sometimes be attended by as many as hundreds of thousands.

The meeting provides the people who had been working hard for most of the year  an opportunity to relax themselves, and for the young, it's the time for courtship via their songs. This is also the best time of the year for Hua'er competitions, joint performances, and other communication programs. The meeting has in some way become a festival for the people of various ethnic groups, who wear their respective national costumes to attend the Hua'er gala during the plateau's most beautiful season.

Originally, "Hua'er Meeting" was a folk gathering related to temple fairs and sacrifices, when people would come to clusters of temples on sunny days to pray  for good weather and safety for the family members and livestock. Meanwhile, people also took the chance to enjoy the landscape during the slack season in farming and communicate with each other. Besides the prayers and worships, the young people also began to tentatively communicate with each other by their songs.

In the course of time, singing Hua'er and courting for love became important parts of the temple fairs. Later, as Hua'er played a more and more important role, the gatherings' role as temple fairs faded. Finally, the original temple fair became the Hua'er Meeting.

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