Qingyuan has 13 ethnic groups such as Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui and Korean. Manchu Autonomous County was established because there are many Manchu people in the local ethnic minorities, in order to better promote development and unity and promote the autonomous management of ethnic minorities. Xinbin County, which is adjacent to it, is also a Manchu Autonomous County.

Yingmen in Qingyuan is the birthplace of the Jurchen nationality, and the gate of the Qinghe River has nurtured the growth of the Jurchen nationality. After Huang taiji acceded to the throne, he referred to "Later Jin Dynasty" as "Qing Dynasty". Qingyuan used to be the boundary of counties in the Qing Dynasty, and bandits and thieves often appeared, so the rulers at that time named Qingyuan (including the source of Qinghe, the meaning of founding the country in the Qing Dynasty) in order to rectify its source and clear its source when building the county. Later, due to the same name as qingyuan county, it was convenient to change "source" to "original" in 1928. The name Qingyuan means "the land is clear and flat".