One country, many ethnicities

China is a united nation of 56 ethnic groups. As the majority (91.6 percent) of the population is of the Han, China's other 55 ethnic groups are customarily referred to as ethnic minorities.

The Han people can be found throughout the country, mainly on the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the Pearl River valleys, and the Northeast Plain.The 55 minorities are scattered over vast areas and can be found in approximately 64.3 percent of China, mainly distributed in Northeast, North, Northwest and Southwest China.

As many minorities are living together over vast areas with some living in compact communities in small areas, China adopts the regional ethnic autonomy system.

In addition to the five autonomous regions - Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang Uygur, Guangxi Zhuang, Ningxia Hui, and Tibet autonomous regions - China has 30 autonomous prefectures and 120 autonomous counties (known, in some cases, as "banners"), as well as over 1,100 ethnic townships. Each of the ethnic groups has a distinctive and different character.

Six minorities are mentioned in the story, including Daur, Hui, Kazak, Tatar, Russian and Uygur. Here is a brief introduction of them. (The population included comes from the fifth national census in 2000.)

Daur:

Population: 132,394; Major areas of distribution: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Xinjiang; Language: Daur and Chinese; Religion: Shamanism

Hui:

Population: 9,816,802; Major areas of distribution: Ningxia, Gansu, Henan, Hebei, Qinghai, Shandong, Yunnan, Xinjiang, Anhui, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Shanxi, Beijing, Tianjin; Language: Chinese; Religion: Islam

Kazak:

Population: 1,250,458; Major areas of distribution: Xinjiang, Gansu and Qinghai; Language: Kazak; Religion: Islam

Tatar:

Population: 4,890; Major area of distribution: Xinjiang; Language: Tartar; Religion: Islam

Russian:

Population: 15,609; Major area of distribution: Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia; Language: Russian; Religion: Orthodox Eastern Church

Uygur:

Population: 8,399,393; Major area of distribution: Xinjiang; Language: Uygur; Religion: Islam

For more information, please visit websites:

http://www.china.org.cn/e-groups/shaoshu/index.htm (in English)

China Daily

(China Daily 04/25/2008 page16)