Of the total 198.252 Qiang people, most live in Maowen County of Aba Ti- bct-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. Others live scattered in Wenchuan, Lixian, Heishui, Songpan, Tan pa of Kantze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture and Beichuan of Mianyang City.

As an ancient ethnic group, the Qiangs were recorded in the historical documents of the Yin period in the oracle- bone script as early as 3,000 years ago. The Qiang area is located on the east edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Surrounded by high mountains, thick forests and swift currents, this gorge area is rich in various resources especially valuable medicinal herbs and rare animals such as giant panda and golden monkey.

The Qiangs grow crops and also raise animals supplemented by hunting and other sideline occupations.

The Qiang language, containing the southern and northern dialects, belongs to the Qiang Branch (or the Tibetan branch) of the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino- Tibetan family. As the language has no written form, the Qiangs write Chinese. The Dangxiang Qiang, ancestors of the present Qiangs, created the Xixia script in the Xixia Kingdom period. Later it became a dead language; no one could read it until the early years of the 20th century.