China has been a unified multi-ethnic country since ancient times. After the founding of New China, a total of 56 ethnic groups were identified by the central government. Since the Han nationality (¿¿) has the largest population in China and the other 55 ethnic groups have a smaller population, the latter is customarily referred as the ethnic minorities (¿¿¿¿). According to China's sixth census in 2010, the Han population account for 91.51%, the population of various ethnic minorities stands at 8.49%. Compared with the fifth national census in 2000, the Han population increased by 5.74%, the population of various ethnic minorities increased by 6.92%. China's ethnic minorities are mainly distributed in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Guangxi, Tibet, Yunnan, Guizhou, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Liaoning, Jilin, Hunan, Hubei, Hainan and other provinces and autonomous regions. The province with the most ethnic group in China is Yunnan Province (¿¿¿). Among the 56 ethnic groups spread across China, 52 could be found in Yunnan, among which there are 26 ethnic groups with a population of 5, 000 or more.


The book has 13 chapters in the following order:Chapter 1: Overview of the Chinese Nationalities (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 2: Names and populations of 55 Ethnic Minorities (¿¿¿¿¿¿55¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 3: China's Autonomous Regions (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 4: Han Nationality (¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 5: Zhuang Nationality (¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 6: The Huis (¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 7: Manchus (¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 8: Uighurs (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 9: Differences between Uighurs and Huis (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 10: The Miao (¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 11: Yi People (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 12: Tujia People (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 13: The Tibetans (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)


The current book volume, Chinese Ethnic Groups (¿¿¿¿¿¿), is a Chinese reading practice book. It would introduce you to the very important features of China's minority groups (such as their names, population, clothes, marriage, caste system, customs, autonomous regions, etc.). The 5th volume in the Introduction to Chinese Geography Series (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) includes both the Chinese text (simplified characters) and pinyin Romanization. With about over 1000 unique Chinese characters, the volume would be suitable for the beginners, lower intermediate and advanced level Chinese language learners (HSK 1-6). Overall, the reading series offers you a variety of elementary level books (Level 1/2/3/4/5/6) to understand China as well as practice Chinese reading fast.