The Miaos are widely distributed over compact living communities in Guizhou Province. There are also the Miao nationality living in Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan and Hainan provinces. The total population is 7.4 million.
The Miaos call themselves "Zhuang", "Mongol", "Mao",Guoxiong" and "Daishou" etc. Besides, various names have before "Miao", such as "Long Skirt Miao", "Short Skirt Miao", "Red Miao" and "Black Miao", etc. The Miao's ancestry came from the clans and tribes known as "South Babarian" four thousand years ago from the Yellow River basin and the south of middle reach of Yangtze River, according to historical records.
The Miaos have their own language belonging to the Chinese-Tibetan language family.
The nationality are engaged in paddy rice and maise cultivation as their main economy and also cultivate such diversified cash crops as tung oil tree, rapeseed and anise as well as such rare medicinal herbs as pseudoginseng, the tuber of elevated gastrodia and the bark of eucommia, etc.
Miao Nationality appears on the following banknote(s):
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