The population is about 412 thousand. The Shui people mainly live in the Sandu Shui Autonomous County of Guizhou Province, and the rest are distributed in the nearby counties of Libo, Dushan, Duyun, Rongjiang and Congjiang, as well as in Rongan, Nandan, Huanjiang and Hechi of Guangxi. They use the Shui language which belongs to the Dong-Shui branch of Zhuang-Dong languages of the Sino-Tibetan language family. There are three varieties, namely Yangan, Pandong and Sandong. There used to be a kind of ancient character called Shui script, which included more than 300 words. Only a few wizards could understand the words and used it in religious activities. Chinese characters are used in daily life. The Shui people call themselves "Sui" and the name is translated as "Shui" in Chinese. In the past, they believed in animistic primitive religion involving many gods. Catholicism was once introduced into the Shui ethnic group in the late Qing Dynasty, but the number of followers is very small. The Shui has its own calendar, which is basically consistent with the lunar calendar. The four Hai days from the end of the eighth month to the beginning of the tenth month are the "Duan Festivals", which are the most important festivals of the Shui ethnic group, equivalent to the “Spring Festival” of the Han people. During the festival, horse racing, copper dancing, reed dance and other activities are held. In addition, there are also "Mao Festival", "Jingxia Festival", "Suningxi Festival", and so on.