Guizhou in the context of "Xiang Chinese"

Miao is a word used in modern China to designate a category of ethnic groups living in southern China and Mainland Southeast Asia. The Miao are the largest ethnic minority group in China without an autonomous region. The Miao live primarily in the mountains of southern China encompassing the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hainan. Some sub-groups of the Miao, most notably the Hmong people, migrated out of China into Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand). Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a large group of Hmong refugees resettled in several Western nations, mainly in the United States, France, and Australia.

Miao is a Chinese term referring to many groups that have their own autonyms such as Hmong, Hmu, Xong (Qo-Xiong), and A-Hmao. These people (except those in Hainan) speak Hmongic languages, a subfamily of the Hmong–Mien languages (Miao-Yao) including many mutually unintelligible languages such as the mother tongues of the four primary groups that make up the Miao: Hmong, Hmub, Xong and A-Hmao.

The Gejia (Chinese: 𱎼家人 or 革家人; Hanyu pinyin: Géjiārén; also Gedou) is an ethnic group of Guizhou province, southwestern China. They are officially classified by the government as a part of the Miao, but have a special status in Guizhou, but not recognized as independent from the Miao. The Gejia live mainly in Qiandongnan Prefecture, in the counties of Huangping, Kaili, and Guanling. They are concentrated in the towns of Chong'an, Chong Xing, Huangpiao in Huangping and Longchang, Wanshui of Kaili. Matang is exclusively inhabited by these people. There are over 400 inhabitants in this village. The total Gejia population is approximately 50,000.

The Long March (Chinese: 长征; pinyin: Chángzhēng; lit. 'Long Expedition') was a military retreat by the Chinese Red Army and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from advancing Kuomintang (KMT) forces during the Chinese Civil War, occurring between October 1934 and October 1935. About 100,000 troops retreated from the Jiangxi Soviet and other bases to a new headquarters in Yan'an, Shaanxi, traversing some 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles). About 8,000 troops ultimately survived the Long March.

After the defeat of the Red Army in Chiang Kai-shek's Fifth Encirclement Campaign, on 10 October 1934 the CCP decided to abandon its Jiangxi Soviet and headquarters in Ruijin, Jiangxi. The First Front Red Army of some 86,000 troops headed west, traveling over the rugged terrain of China's western provinces, including eastern Tibet. The Red Army broke several of Chiang's blockades with heavy losses, and by the time it crossed the Xiang River on 1 December had only 36,000 men left. Its leaders, including Comintern military adviser Otto Braun and Moscow-trained Bo Gu, decided to take the troops through Hunan, but Chiang set up defenses to block their way. Mao Zedong, who was not a member of the Politburo, suggested going through Guizhou instead, which was accepted. On New Year's Day 1935, the Red Army crossed the Wu River, and a week later held the Zunyi Conference, which reduced Soviet influence in the Politburo and established Mao's position as de facto leader.

Western China (中国西部 or 华西) is the west of China. It consists of Southwestern China and Northwestern China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers six provinces (Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai), three autonomous regions (Tibet, Ningxia, and Xinjiang), and one direct-administered municipality (Chongqing).

Wu Sangui (Chinese: 吳三桂; pinyin: Wú Sānguì; Wade–Giles: Wu San-kuei; 8 June 1612 – 2 October 1678), courtesy name Changbai (長白) or Changbo (長伯), was a Chinese military leader who played a key role in the fall of the Ming dynasty and the founding of the Qing dynasty. In Chinese folklore, Wu Sangui is regarded as a disreputable Han Chinese traitor for his defection over to the Manchu invaders, suppression of the Southern Ming resistance and execution of the Yongli Emperor. Wu eventually double-crossed both of his masters, the Ming and the Qing dynasties.

In 1644, Wu was a Ming general in charge of garrisoning Shanhai Pass, the strategic choke point between Manchuria and Beijing. After learning that Li Zicheng's rebel army had conquered Beijing and captured his family, including his father Wu Xiang and concubine Chen Yuanyuan, Wu allowed the Manchu to enter China proper through Shanhai Pass to drive Li from Beijing, where the Manchu then set up the Qing dynasty. For his aid, the Qing rulers awarded him a fiefdom consisting of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, along with the title "Prince Who Pacifies the West" (平西王).

Sichuan, previously romanized as Szechwan or Szechuan, is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Chengdu, and its population stands at 83 million. Sichuan neighbors Qinghai and Gansu to the north, Shaanxi and Chongqing to the east, Guizhou and Yunnan to the south, and Tibet to the west.

During antiquity, Sichuan was home to the kingdoms of Ba and Shu until their incorporation by the Qin. During the Three Kingdoms era (220–280), Liu Bei's state of Shu was based in Sichuan. The area was devastated in the 17th century by Zhang Xianzhong's rebellion and the area's subsequent Manchu conquest. However, the area recovered to become one of China's most productive by the 19th century. During World War II, Chongqing served as the temporary capital of the Republic of China, and was heavily bombed. It was one of the last mainland areas captured by the People's Liberation Army during the Chinese Civil War, and was divided into four parts from 1949 to 1952, with Chongqing restored two years later. It suffered gravely during the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961) but remained China's most-populous province until Chongqing was again separated from it in 1997.

Southwestern Mandarin (Chinese: 西南官话; pinyin: Xīnán Guānhuà), also known as Upper Yangtze Mandarin (Chinese: 上江官话; pinyin: Shàngjiāng Guānhuà), is a Mandarin Chinese dialect spoken in much of Southwestern China, including in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, most parts of Hubei, the northwestern part of Hunan, the northern part of Guangxi and some southern parts of Shaanxi and Gansu.

Southwestern Mandarin is spoken by roughly 260 million people. If considered a language distinct from central Mandarin, it would be the eighth-most spoken language by native speakers in the world, behind Mandarin itself, Spanish, English, Hindi, Portuguese, Arabic and Bengali.

Hakka (Chinese: 客家话; pinyin: Kèjiāhuà; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Hak-kâ-va / Hak-kâ-fa, Chinese: 客家语; pinyin: Kèjiāyǔ; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Hak-kâ-ngî) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people in parts of Southern China, Taiwan, some diaspora areas of Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around the world.

Due to its primary usage in isolated regions where communication is limited to the local area, Hakka has developed numerous varieties or dialects, spoken in different provinces, such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, as well as in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Hakka is not mutually intelligible with Yue, Wu, Min, Mandarin or other branches of Chinese, and itself contains a few mutually unintelligible varieties. It is most closely related to Gan and is sometimes classified as a variety of Gan, with a few northern Hakka varieties even being partially mutually intelligible with southern Gan. There is also a possibility that the similarities are just a result of shared areal features.

Yunnan is an inland province in Southwestern China, spanning approximately 394,000 km (152,000 sq mi) and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, autonomous regions of Guangxi and Tibet, as well as Southeast Asian countries Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, and Laos. Yunnan is China's fourth least developed province based on disposable income per capita in 2014.

Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with high elevations in the Northwest and low elevations in the Southeast. Most of the population lives in the eastern part of the province. In the west, the altitude can vary from the mountain peaks to river valleys as much as 3,000 m (9,800 ft). Yunnan is rich in natural resources and has the largest diversity of plant life in China. Of the approximately 30,000 species of higher plants in China, Yunnan has perhaps 17,000 or more. Yunnan's reserves of aluminium, lead, zinc and tin are the largest in China, and there are also major reserves of copper and nickel. Historically, the southwestern Silk Road to Bhitargarh in Bangladesh passed through modern Yunnan.

Sichuanese, also called Sichuanese Mandarin, is a branch of Southwestern Mandarin spoken mainly in Sichuan and Chongqing, which was part of Sichuan Province from 1954 until 1997, and the adjacent regions of their neighboring provinces, such as Hubei, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan and Shaanxi. Although "Sichuanese" is often synonymous with the Chengdu-Chongqing dialect, there is still a great amount of diversity among the Sichuanese dialects, some of which are mutually unintelligible with each other. In addition, because Sichuanese is the lingua franca in Sichuan, Chongqing and part of Tibet, it is also used by many Tibetan, Yi, Qiang and other ethnic minority groups as a second language.

Sichuanese is more similar to Standard Chinese than southeastern Chinese varieties but is still quite divergent in phonology, vocabulary, and even grammar. The Minjiang dialect is especially difficult for speakers of other Mandarin dialects to understand. Sichuanese can be further divided into a number of dialects: Chengdu–Chongqing, Minjiang, Renshou–Fushun, and Ya'an–Shimian. The dialect of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province and an important central city, is the most representative dialect of Southwestern Mandarin and is used widely in Sichuan opera and other art forms of the region.