ULAN BATOR, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- An international photojournalism exhibition kicked off here on Wednesday in a bid to exhibit contemporary Mongolia and promote photojournalism exchanges.

The five-day event is a result of week-long photo tour from here to central Tuv province, and Khentii and Dornod provinces in the east as part of the second edition of an annual program "Mongolia Today."

The program is co-organized by the Mongolian state-owned news agency Montsame, the United Association of Mongolian Photographers and the Council on Mongolian National Brands.

"The program aims to promote Mongolia via the works of domestic and foreign photojournalists and enrich foreign press archives with new pictures of modern Mongolia," Tserendorj Batbaatar, president of the United Association of Mongolian Photographers, told Xinhua during the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

He expressed the hope that the program will attract more domestic and foreign photojournalists in the coming years.

More than 20 photojournalists from six countries, namely China, Mongolia, Russia, Turkey, South Korea and Japan have contributed around 100 photos to the exhibition.

"I am happy that I travelled around Mongolia's vast steppe thanks to this program ... My photos depicting land degradation of the steppe due to human activities are on display here," Takeshi Goto, a Japanese photojournalist, said at the exhibition.