The Li people live in the central and southern part of Hainan Island. 84.7% of the Li people are distributed in the six autonomous counties of Qiongzhong, Baoting, Baisha, Ledong, Changjiang and Lingshui that implement regional ethnic autonomy and areas that enjoy ethnic autonomy. The three cities of Sanya, Tongshi, and Dongfang receive policy treatment, and a small number of them live scattered in the three cities of Wanning, Danzhou, Qionghai, and Tunchang County.

The Li ethnic group is one of the ethnic groups in Lingnan, China. According to the fifth national census in 2000, the population of the Li ethnic group was 1,247,814. Mainly based on agriculture, women are skilled in textiles, and "Li Brocade" and "Li Dan" are world-famous.

The Li people mainly live in the Wuzhi Mountain area of ??Hainan Province in southern China. It is located in the subtropical zone with beautiful scenery and charming scenery. The Li people are accustomed to eating three meals a day, with rice as their staple food and sometimes some miscellaneous grains. It is customary to store the harvested rice ears in the warehouse, and when eating, take a handful and thresh them in a wooden mortar. The first way to make rice is to cook it in a clay pot or iron pot, which is roughly the same as the Han Chinese method of stewing rice.

Extended information:

"Li" is another name for the Li people. Before the Western Han Dynasty, some ethnic minorities in the south were generally called "Luoyue", "Li" and "Man" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and "Li" and "Liao" in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, including the ancient ancestors of the Li people in Hainan Island.

"Li", as the name of the Li people today, was first seen in the book "Lingbiao Luyi" written by Liu Xun in the late Tang Dynasty. The book contains a record of "Dan, Zhenyi Li, picking purple shellfish by the sea as goods". In addition, Volume 179 of "New Book of Tang Dynasty: Du You Biography" contains the record of "Zhuya Limin III was not a guest, but You fought for peace" during the Dezong period of Tang Dynasty (780-805).

However, "New Book of Tang" was written by Ouyang Xiu of Song Dynasty. The name "Li" should be recorded in "Lingbiao Luyi" as the earliest one. In the Song Dynasty, "Li" was generally used in various historical records to replace "Li" and "Liao", which became the exclusive name of the Li people in Hainan Island today.

According to archaeological data, it can be inferred that the ancestors of the Li people settled in Hainan Island during the Yin and Zhou Dynasties 3,000 years ago and lived in a primitive matrilineal clan commune.

At that time, people lived on hills and terraces near rivers, using tools such as stone axes, stone adzes, and stone shovels to engage in primitive hoeing agriculture, hunting, and fishing by “cutting them down and burning them all.” Activity. Collecting also plays a very important role in the lives of the ancestors of the Li people.

While meeting the needs of food and clothing, the Li people also vigorously develop specialty agriculture of tropical fruits, tropical crops, and winter melons and vegetables in accordance with local conditions, which has greatly broadened their paths to wealth. Tropical fruits such as bananas, mangoes, lychees, and longans have gradually formed a base-based, large-scale, and commercialized production situation in Li areas; tropical economies such as rubber, coconuts, cashews, sisal, coffee, and southern medicine have Crops have become the dominant industry in Li areas; more than 200 varieties of winter melons, melons, melons, beans, tomatoes, peppers and other winter melons have been grown. In addition to being supplied locally, they are also sold outside the island and exported to Hong Kong and Macao.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia - Li Nationality