Ethnic Groups

Shaanxi is located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River in the hinterland of China. It is one of the important birthplaces of ancient Chinese civilization and the Chinese nation. About 800,000 years ago, Lantian apes thrived in the upper reaches of the Bahe River in the Guanzhong Plain. From the 11th century BC, 14 dynasties of Western Zhou, Qin, Western Han, Xin, Eastern Han, Western Jin, Qian Zhao, Qian Qin, Later Qin, Da Xia, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang set the capital in Shaanxi. Shaanxi has been the political, economic, and cultural center of the country for a long time, and it is this region where Chinese civilization went global for the first time.

The ancestors of the Chinese nation, Huangdi and Yandi, were both active in Shaanxi and left many legacies. Ancient historical legends and archaeological data can prove that the Yellow River Basin, including Shaanxi, is one of the main areas of primitive clan and tribal activities in our country. It is also the backbone of the Chinese nation and the birthplace of the Huaxia tribe.

After the Han Dynasty, the term 'Han people' began to be widely applied to this day.

During the Han Dynasty, the Han people in Shaanxi officially formed into an ethnic group, and its characteristics are the same as those in other regions. Its predecessor, the Huaxia tribe, gradually developing into the Han people after merging with many other neighboring ethnic groups since the pre-Qin Dynasty.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, as the northern part of Shaanxi was close to the Huns, and the capitals of the Qin and Western Han Dynasties were located in Guanzhong area, Huns used to set their deep footprints in Shaanxi. There are traces of residence and activities of Huns in Guanzhong and northern Shaanxi.

During the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, various ethnic groups in Shaanxi lived together and migrated frequently. They merged with each other for hundreds of years, forming the largest ethnic integration in the history of Shaanxi.　　

After the decline of the Yuan Dynasty, the Hui living in Shaanxi developed further and gradually formed the Hui group. Until the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, its language, clothing, and surnames were consistent with those of the Han, but because of their belief in Islam, their customs, funerals, marriages, fasting and other etiquette have their own characteristics.

When the country was unified during the Qing Dynasty, the relationship between the Mongolian (Hetao region) and Han people became closer. At the same time, because Manchurian officers and soldiers stationed in Shaanxi, a group of Manchus settled in Xi'an, Hanzhong, Tongguan and other places in Shaanxi. The Eight Banners Manchurian officers and soldiers and their families in Shaanxi were going through sinicization due to their cohabitation with the large population of Han. They gradually intermarried with the Han people, using Chinese characters, and learning the cultural customs of the Han people.

Up to this point, a multi-ethnic distribution of ethnic groups dominated by Han and Hui in Shaanxi has been formed.