Gin people

The Gin people (Chinese: 京族; pinyin: Jīngzú, Yale: Gīng juhk) are an ethnic minority group that live in southeastern China, who are descendants of ethnic Vietnamese. The native name of the Gin, Kinh, simply means Vietnamese people and the Chinese character for the ethnic group, 京, is the same as in Sino-Vietnamese. They mainly live on three islands off the coast of Dongxing, Fangchenggang, in the Chinese province of Guangxi.

The Gin population was estimated to be just over 20,000 as of 2000. This number does not include the 36,205 Vietnamese nationals studying or working in Mainland China recorded by the 2010 national population census.

History

The ancestors of the Jin people immigrated to southern China from Vietnam during the 16th century and established communities on the three originally uninhabited islands of Wutou, Wanwei and Shanxin.

Geography

The people of this very small ethnic minority live in compact communities primarily on the three islands of Wanwei, Wutou and Shanxin in the county of Fangchenggang in the province of Guangxi, near the Sino-Vietnamese border. A minority also also live in nearby counties and towns with predominately Han Chinese or Zhuang populations.