China is a large country noted for its dense population and vast territory. There are altogether 56 ethnic groups in China. The defining elements of an ethnic group are language, homeland, and social values. 53 ethnic groups use spoken languages of their own, and 23 ethnic groups have their own written languages.
According to the fifth national census taken in 2001, the Han people made up 91.59 percent of the country's total population, totaling 1159.4 million; and the other 55 ethnic groups, 8.41 percent, totaling 106.43 million. As the majority of the population is of the Han ethnic group, the other 55 ethnic groups are customarily referred to as the national minorities.
The Han people can be found throughout the country, though mainly on the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the Pearl River valleys, and the Northeast Plain. The national minorities, though fewer in number, are also scattered over a vast area, mainly distributed in the border regions from northeast China to north, northwest and southwest China. The largest is the 12 million-strong Zhuang ethnic group in southwestern China. And Yunnan Province, home to more than 20 ethnic groups, has the greatest diversity of minority people in China.
Equality, unity and common prosperity are the fundamental objectives of the government in handling the relations between ethnic groups. China exercises a policy of regional autonomy for various ethnic groups, allowing ethnic groups living in compact communities to establish self-government and direct their own affairs.
In most of China's cities and county town, two or more ethnic groups live together. Taking shape over China's long history, this circumstance of different ethnic groups living together in one area while still living in individual compact communities in special areas continues to provide the practical basis for political, economic and cultural intercourse between the Han and the various minority peoples, and for the functioning of the autonomous national minority areas system.
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