The population is about 2.88 million. The Dong people are distributed in the adjacent areas of Guizhou Province, Hunan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province is their major habitation area. They use the Dong language, belonging to the Dong-Shui branch of Zhuang-Dong languages of Sino-Tibetan language family with two kinds of dialects, the north and the south. Originally the Dong language did not have script and the people used Chinese characters. In 1958, the Dong writing system was devised using Latin alphabets on the basis of the south Dong dialect with Rongjiang dialect of Guizhou Province as the standard pronunciation. The Dong people are mainly engaged in agriculture and good at fish farming and growing rice crops. They are also engaged in forestry, renowned for growing China fir and Camellia oleifera. The Dong people are expert in wood architecture. Drum towers, wind and rain bridges and stilt houses are the representatives of their distinctive architectural culture which is renowned at home and abroad. The art of music and dancing of the Dong people are wondrous and beautiful. The Grand Song of the Dong ethnic group, the multi-part folk chorus music in natural harmony performed without instrumental accompaniment or a leader, has been included in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The traditional festivals include the “Spring Festival”, “Dong New Year”, “Fireworks Festival”, “Bullfighting Festival”, “Ganshe”, “Song Fetsival”, “New Rice Festival”, etc.