China Travel Photo Blog - China eTours

Yi Ethnic Group

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 03:24:32 +0000

With a population of over 7 billion, Yi Ethnic Group is mainly distributed in the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnanand Guizhou, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Liangshan in Sichuan Provinceis the largest Yi community. The ancestors of the Yi people can be traced back to the Qiang people living in northwest China.

Yi Ethnic Group 1

Yi ethnic group lives mainly in the mountainous areas of the Daliangshan Mountain and the Ailaoshan Mountain. They nestle in perfect harmony with the surrounding mountains. Most Yi houses were low mud-and-wood structures without windows.

Yi Ethnic Group 2

Yi Ethnic Group 3

Yi Women wear embroidered jackets and pleated long skirts with colorful multi-layer laces. Yi men wear black jackets with tight sleeves and askew fronts and pleated trousers. Both men and women wear a kind of dark cape made of wool, hemmed with long tassels that reach the knee when going outdoors.

Yi Ethnic Group 4

Yi Ethnic Group 5

In most Yi areas, maize, buckwheat, oat and potato are staples, while rice production is limited. Complements to their main food source include vegetable, legume, fruits, mutton, beef and pork.

Yi Ethnic Group 6

Yi Ethnic Group 7

Torch Festival is a traditional festival held around the twenty-fourth of the sixth month of the lunar calendar and common to the Yi people of all districts. During the festival, big torches tied up with dried pine wood and lightwood are erected in all villages. Most Yi people will join in this festival.

Yi Ethnic Group 8

Tujia Ethnic Group

admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 11:41:25 +0000

With a total population of over 8 million, Tujia people is the 6th largest ethnic minority in China which distributes in the Wuling Range of western Hunan and Hubei provinces. In Chinese, Tujia means also “local”, as distinguished from the Hakka whose name implies wandering.

Tujia Ethnic Group 1

The Tujia people have their own language. As they have no written script, they use the Chinese characters instead. Most Tujia people build their houses in various styles by rivers and streams. They like to plant fruit trees and flowers around their houses.

Tujia Ethnic Group 2

Tujia women like wearing collarless long, loose-fitting jackets that button up on the left side with decorative laces around the edges. They also wear pointed embroidered shoes. The traditional dress for Tujia men is jackets with large front pieces buttoning up on the right.

Tujia Ethnic Group 3

The Tujia are renowned for their singing and song composing abilities and for their tradition of the Baishou Dance, a 500 year old collective dance which uses 70 ritual gestures to represent war, farming, hunting, courtship and other aspects of traditional life.

Tujia Ethnic Group 4

Tujia Ethnic Group 5

People of Tujia ethnic minority enjoy free marriage. What’s more, the Custom of Crying Marriage has existed inChina’s ethnic minorities for a long period, especially among Tujia People, who view it as a necessary marriage procedure.

Tujia Ethnic Group 6

Tujia people prefer a combination of sour and spicy. Their favorite dishes are to your surprise, spicy-pickled vegetables-pickled carrots, pickled cabbage, pickled beans and pickled peppers.

Tujia Ethnic Group 7

Mongolian Ethnic Group

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:20:42 +0000

Mongolian ethnic minority is distributed primarily in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region along with others in provinces like Qinghai, Gansu, Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang, etc. The population of Mongols is around 5.8 million.

Mongolian Ethnic Group 1

Mongolian people live in yurt, a domed round tent. It is of a wooden lattice frame erected into a circle and secured with strips of rope, forming a head-high self-supporting cylinder.

Mongolian Ethnic Group 2

Mongolian people have their unique national costumes. Mongolian women often wear head-dress while they visit their friends and relatives. The head-dress is made of agate, pearls, coral, jadeite, gem, gold and silver, with which many different beautiful patterns are formed.

Mongolian Ethnic Group 3

Mongolian Ethnic Group 4

The Mongolian people take milk and meat as their daily staple food and drink. They enjoy drinking the milk of sheep, horses, deer and camels. The diet of the Mongolians has been expanded to include vegetables as well as pasta and rice today.

Mongolian Ethnic Group 5

Mongolian people are good at sports, including riding horses, wrestling, shooting, etc. “Nadam,” meaning games in Mongolian, is the name of a traditional Mongolian fair, which is held in July and August each year. Mongolian Ethnic Group is a nation with enthusiasm. They will give you a Hada when you visit there. The purely white hada means peace and happiness.

Mongolian Ethnic Group 6

Mongolian Ethnic Group 7

Mongolian Ethnic Group 8

Miao Ethnic Group

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:01:31 +0000

With a population of 8.9 million, the Miao people form one of the largest ethnic minorities in southwest China. In China, they inhabit a wide range of land in south-central China, including settlements in Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hubei, and Hainan Provinces.

Photo of Miao Family Group

The origin of the Miao people can be traced back to ancient era and people in different regions used to call themselves by different names. The Miaos have their own language, and their written language was created after 1949.

The Miao people like to live in compact communities and their villages are mostly built on mountain slopes. Their houses, made of timber, are tow or three stores structures.

The clothing of the Miao ethnic group is various and colorful. Men wear short coats and trousers, while women decorate themselves with very dainty and dazzling skirts and jewels. Black and blue are the commonly used colors in their garments.

How cute the three little Miao girls are!

The Miao people are fond of singing and dancing. The Lusheng Festival is the most influential festival of the Miao community. The festival features a lot of Miao ethnic activities, such as singing, bullfighting, horseracing, and dancing to the rhythm of the Lusheng.

Lusheng is a homemade reed mouth organ with five or six bamboo pipes, played by various ethnic groups in southwest China

The staple food of the Miao ethnic minority is rice. Other dishes are meat and acidic soups. Pickled vegetables, hot seasonings and home-made wine are common at the table. Glutinous rice becomes a must during festivals and celebrations.

Five-color Rice

Sour Soup Fish is one of the most famous dishes for Miao people

The Miao people believe that everything in nature has a spirit. Every time there are disasters, they will invite a wizard to perform ceremonies designed to drive out the devil ghost. Their main festivals include the New Year of the Miao calendar, Tiaochang, Tasting New Grain Festival, Fourth Month Eighth Day Festival, Lusheng Festival and Dragon Boat Festival.

Uygur Ethnic Group

admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:56:58 +0000

Uygur, a self-proclaimed name, means “solidarity” or “union”. With a population of 8,399,393, the Uygur people mainly live in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regions, especially to the south of Mt. Tianshan.

Photo of Uygur Family Group

The Uygur people possess their own language. The origin of the ethnic group can be traced back to the Dingling nomads that lived in the areas between the Lake Baikal and Lake Balkhash in the 3rd century B.C.

Residential buildings of the Uygur people are characterized by courtyard clusters. The Architecture is square with deep, front corridors. The entrance doors usually face the west.

Two little Uygur boys are standing in front of their house.

Cotton clothes are their favorite. Men wear gowns, and fasten a long scarf around the waist. Women prefer one-piece dresses with bag-sleeves, colorful vests and silk scarves. Caps are an integral part of their costume. Women like wearing various kinds of accessories.

Two beautiful Uygur girls

The Uygurs are excellent at dancing and singing. They can also play many musical instruments. The most prestigious and well-known genre of Uyghur music is the Muqam. Festivities such as wedding ceremonies are celebrated with all guests, joining in their traditional folk dance.

Traditional musical instruments sold in Xinjiang Store

A wedding ceremony – the shy bride and the handsome bridegroom

The Uygur people like to eat pancakes, melon or guard jam, sweet jam, milk tea, and oil tea for breakfast, various staple foods for lunch, and pancakes, steamed dumplings, and noodles for dinner. Like the Hui people, Uygur people never eat pork.

A Nang show held in Xinjiang. Nang is Uygurs' food. Uygurs cannot miss eating a Nang any day.

Roasted Mutton Cubes on Spit

The Uygur people observe Islamism, and their grandest festival is the Corban festival, which falls on the 10th day of the second month in the Islamic calendar.

Hui Ethnic Group

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:17:19 +0000

With a sizable population of 8.61 million, Hui ethnic group is one of China’s largest ethnic minorities. Hui People origin can be found in most cities throughout China, especially in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Gansu, Qinghai, Henan, Hebei, Shandong and Yunnan provinces and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Family group picture of Hui people

The Hui’s ancestors can be traced back to Islamic soldiers and artisans who lived in central and western Asia. Chinese is the native language of the Hui for both the spoken and written language. In addition, they retain some of the Arabic and Persian words.

Most of the Hui people are Muslim and there is typically a mosque in each community. Islamism has played a vital role in the development of the Hui ethnic minority. Traditionally, Hui people live in wooden-framed adobe bungalows. Most of these south-facing buildings have one door, two windows, and a flat or lean-to roof. But many now live in apartment buildings with modern facilities.

Great Mosque in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Compared to other ethnic groups in Xinjiang, the Huis dress themselves plainly. Men typically wear a small white skullcap, white shirt and black vest. Women wear veils or white caps. Many women like to wear jewelry.

Several Hui girls are showing their beautiful clothing.

The marriage outside the Hui group is not encouraged. If a Hui wants to marry a non-Hui, the non-Hui youth must understand and respect the Hui culture as well as convert to Islamism. The marriage ceremony is simple. Singing and playing instruments are forbidden.

A wedding photography of a pair of Hui lovers

Wheat flour is the Hui’s traditional staple food. They make all sorts of dishes out of it, such as hand-stretched noodles, flakes, steamed buns, soup, deep-fried bread. Mutton is regarded as the main meat of Hui people. Hui people are generally forbidden to eat the meat of pigs, dogs, horses, donkeys, mules as well as the blood of animals.

Babao Tea is used to entertain guests for Hui people.

The primary Hui festivals are Lesser Bairam (End of Ramadan), Corban, and Shengji Festival, in which Lesser Bairam is the most important. Lesser Bairam is celebrated on the first day of the tenth month and lasts three days. Relatives and friends are served choice beef and mutton, and fired cakes which are their favorite food.

An ethnic Hui family celebrates Lesser Bairam in Ningxia.

Man Ethnic Group

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:22:02 +0000

The Manchu, with a population of 9.82 million, are mainly distributed in Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, of which Liaoning has the most Manchus. The direct ancestry of the Man is believed to be the Jurchens in the Ming Dynasty. After the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the Manchus were officially named the Man ethnic group.

Family Group photo of Manchus

Manchus have their own script and language, which belongs to the Man-Tungusic branch of the Altaic language family. Based on the Mongolian script, the Mans created their script in the late 19th century. Chinese is commonly used after the Qing Dynasty.

Man Language

Houses of the Manchus were built in three divisions, with the middle used as a kitchen and the two wings each serving as bedroom and living room. By tradition, the bedroom had three “kang” (brick beds), which were laid against the west, north and south walls.

Can you see the boat-like thing hang over the ? It’s used to baby, named “Yaoche” in Chinese.

The traditional costumes of a Manchu man are a narrow-cuffed short jacket over a long gown with a belt at the waist to facilitate horse-riding and hunting. Manchu women used to wear loose-bodied Cheongsams and embroidered shoes. In the past, Manchu men wore their hair long.

a beautiful Man Girl with their traditional clothing

A wedding of Manchu lovers

The Man people have a distinctive cuisine with typical dishes that include Chaffy dish, acid soup, blood sausage, and “bobo”, a type of steamed cake. In Man culture, eating the meat of dog or any product derived from dog is shunned.

Man “Eight Dishes”

The Manchu and the Han basically share the same festivals and holidays such as the Spring Festival, the Duanwu Festival and the Mid-autumn Festival. The Manchus always hold various traditional sports activities, of which the most common sports are Pearl Ball and skating.

Han Ethnic Groups

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:28:27 +0000

The Han Ethnic Group is the largest among the 56 Han Ethnic Groups in China, making up 92 percent of the total population. Border regions are embroidered with the homelands of most of China’s 55 minority peoples, mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and the Pearl River as well as the Northeast Plains.

A family group picture of Han people from Qufu, Shandong Province.

The Han Ethnic Group has its own spoken and written language, known as the Chinese language. Chinese is written in two forms by the Han people – the traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters. Simplified Chinese characters are commonly used nowadays throughout China.

This is a calligraphy work from a calligraphy competition held in Shenyang.

Clothing for Han people refers to the clothing worn by the Han ethnic people from the ruling periods of the Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns to the Ming Dynasty. Han Chinese clothing retained its simple and elegant style for many years. Accessories and hair ornaments are also important components of Han Chinese clothing.

Modern girls are wearing traditional Han clothing in a park.

House styles and materials of the Han people vary in different regions of China. Those built in North China are mostly made of bricks in the courtyard style. Beijing Courtyard (Siheyuan) is a representative. All the houses of Han are suggested to be positioned in the north facing south in order to catch the maximum sunlight.

Beijing Courtyard

In the old days, most marriages were arranged by parents. During the ceremony of engagement, the groom’s family should send some presents to his wife-to-be as gifts. On the wedding day, the bride should also bring gifts to the groom’s family as dowry. After the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom will enter the bridal chamber while the groom’s family members will treat guests and friends with dinner.

A traditional wedding was held by a pair of lovers in a hotel.

The staple food of Han is rice and wheat, and various meat and vegetables are assistant food. Tea and alcohol are the Chinese traditional drinks. The Han Chinese likes to entertain their honored guests with tea and alcoholic drinks. There are also eight famous cuisines in China, including Lu Cuisine, Xiang Cuisine, Yue Cuisine, etc.

Dezhou Braised Chicken – one of the most famous Shangdong Cuisines

Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, are the main religions of the Han people. Besides, there is an increasing number of Chinese who practices Roman Catholicism, Christianism and Islamism.

The main festivals for Han people are Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Winter Solstice, etc., among which Spring Festival is the most important one.

Zhuang Ethnic Group

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:43:49 +0000

With a population of about 16,178,811, the Zhuang ethnic minority is the largest minority group in China with a long history and glorious culture. Zhuang people are mostly live in Guangxi in southern China. The rest have settled in Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou and Hunan.

Family Group picture of Zhuang People

“Zhuang” was one of the names the ancestors of the ethnic group gave themselves. The term was first recorded some 1,000 years ago, in the Song Dynasty. The Zhuang has its own language which belongs to the Zhuang-Dong branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

Zhuang people like to inhabit on valley lands surrounded by mountains and waters. The Zhuang house was traditionally wooden house on pillars, which has two storied, with the upper story serving as living quarters.

Houses for Zhuang People among water and mountains are usually two-storied.

The style of clothing that the Zhuang people wear differs according to different areas. Men’s clothing styles are almost the same. However the Zhuang women have numerous styles. Zhuang women in Guangxi prefer collarless jackets buttoned to the left with black square headbands on the head and loose trousers.

Several young girls were taking photos on Tiananmen Square. They were very pleased; maybe this is the first time for them to visit Beijing.

There are two forms of marriages among Zhuang People, one is free love and the other is arranged marriage by parents. There are also several strange customs among the Zhuang people wedding. For example, the wife stays away from her husband’s house after marriage.

Zhuang cuisine includes many salty and sour dishes such as pickled cabbage, pickled vegetables and pork, and dried fish. A common Zhuang drink is “oil tea”, tea leaves fried in oil with rice grains brewed and drunk with peanuts or a rice cake.

A family dinner of Zhuang people

Zhuang people believe in the propagation, the totem, and their ancestors. Most of them are polytheists now, believing the power of many inanimate things in nature, such as high mountains, giant trees, cavity, the earth, the sun, water and so on.

Besides sharing similar festivals with the Han, Zhuang minority has its unique festivals including: the Devil Festival, the Ox Soul Festival, the Singing Festival, etc. Zhuang people are fond of singing, and Zhuang areas are also famed as “the ocean of songs”.

“Touya” Festival

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:27:28 +0000

“Ya” is a traditional Festival in southern part of Fukien Province and Taiwan which is celebrated in the second day and sixteenth day every lunar month. So the second day of second month of the lunar calendar is the first day for people to worship Tu Di Gong (Earth God) in a year. This festival is an important worship ritual of wishing for good harvest in the coming months.

In the second day of second month of the lunar calendar, every family will busy sacrificing draught animals to the Tu Di Gong, and burning incense and joss paper. They are praying a really great harvest in the coming year.

You can see the shrine in almost every family in southern part of Fukien Province.

A mental activity was held in front of a temple of Tu Di Gong.

At the same time, bosses in many companies will invent employees to dinner on this day to thank their hard working in the last year. Employees will come to dinner happily.

“Touya” Festival is also widely known as Longtaitou Festival in northern area of China, meaning “Dragon Raises its Head”. This traditional agriculture celebration is based around the appeasement of the mystical dragon, who brings wind and rainfall, and controls the insect world. Today, Longtaitou Festival is celebrated in various ways, most of which are still identical to those practiced in the ancient times.

Cutting hair is a traditional custom in Longtaitou Festival still popular today. People believe getting a haircut on that day will bring luck to them, especially among children in Northern area of China.

Babies behave differently on hair cutting. Look, the baby in the second picture is crying very sadly when his hair was cut.

Ways to celebrate this festival for common people also include eating pancakes and noodles, etc. People in different areas have different food. But most of the food in related with Dragon. And they like putting the character “Dragon” on the food.

The lucky traditions, which went back thousands of years, reflect people’s wish to have a happy life.