Ethnic Minorities of China

China officially registers 56 ethnic groups. The ethnic Chinese, known as the Han Chinese, compose 93 percent of the population. Han Chinese speak different dialects, with Mandarin or Putonghua - which means "common speech" -- being the official and most-used. Cantonese, which is spoken in Hong Kong and in China's other southern provinces, is the second most popular. Most of the 55 other ethnic groups use their own languages.
China's minorities account for a small part of the entire population which is only about seven percent. China has five Autonomous Regions for its minorities: Guangxi, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia.

Since the ancient time, China's history has been a story of an immense land with diverse tribes. It is also one of migrations, conflicts, separations and fusion of culture. China was ruled by Han most of the time in the past except in Yuen Dynasty that Mongols ruled for less than 100 years and in Qing Dynasty, Manchuria ruled for almost 300 years. China's boundary today was solidified in early Qing Dynasty in early 17th Century.

China is a multi-culture and multi-disciplined society for a few thousand years. All minorities in China today have the equal right as Han Chinese. Since minorities reside in the remote area and usually poor, Chinese government has preference policy to provide training for the minorities to progress, govern and manage.