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 Hainan,
China's second largest island after Taiwan, is the home of the
Li ethnic group with a population of about 1.11 million. Most
of them live in and around Tongze, capital of the Hainan Li-Miao
Autonomous Prefecture, and Baoting, Ledong, Dongfang and other
counties under its jurisdiction; others live among people of the
Han and Hui ethnic groups in other parts of the island.
Lying at the
foot of the Wuzhi Mountains, the Li area is a tropical paradise
with fertile land and abundant rainfall. Coconut palms and rubber
trees line the beaches and people in some places reap three
crops of rice a year and grow maize and sweet potatoes all the
year round. The area is the country's major producer of tropical
crops such as coconut, arica, sisal hemp, lemon grass, cocoa,
coffee, rubber, oil palm, cashew, pineapple, casava, mango and
banana.
The island is
abundant in minerals like copper, tin, crystal quarts, phosphorus,
iron and tungsten. There are numerous salt pans and many fine
harbors along the coast, and good fishing grounds off the shore.
Pearls, coral and hawksbill, turtles of commercial value are
found in the coastal waters. Black gibbons, civets and peacocks
live in the primeval forests which abound with valuable timber
trees.
The Lis had
no written script. Their spoken language belongs to the
Chinese-Tibetan
language family. But many of them now speak the Chinese language.
A new romanized script was created for the Li ethnic group in
1957 with government help.
 History
According to
historical records, the term "Li" first appeared in
the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The Lis are believed to be descendants
of the ancient Yue ethnic group, with especially close relations
with the Luoyues -- a branch of the Yues -- who migrated from
Guangdong and Guangxi on the mainland to Hainan Island long
before the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.). Archaeological finds
on the island show that Li ancestors settled there some 3,000
years ago during the late Shang Dynasty or early Zhou Dynasty
when they led a primitive matriarchal communal life. Ethnically,
the Lis are closely related to the Zhuang, Bouyei, Shui, Dong
and Dai ethnic groups, and their languages bear resemblance
in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. People of the Han
ethnic group began to settle on the island also before the Qin
Dynasty as farmers, fishermen and merchants. Together, people
of the two ethnic groups contributed to the development of Hainan.
Later, the Han Dynasty sent troops under Lu Bode and Ma Yuan
to set up prefectures and strengthen government control there
and enhance relations between the mainland and the island.
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