The population is about 191 thousand. The Xibe people are mainly distributed in Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and other places, and some people live in the Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the surrounding areas. The Xibe people in Xinjiang use the Xibe language, which belongs to the Manchu branch of Manchu-Tungusic languages of the Altaic language family. The Xibe people living in the northeast use Chinese. The Xibe has its own script which was slightly modified on the basis of Manchu script in 1947. Most of the Xibe people can use Chinese. "Xibe" is a self-proclaimed name of the ethnic group. Regarding the meaning of the word “Xibe”, there are different opinions. One is that it is an auspicious animal or a band hook; another is that it was the name of a place. The Xibe people have lived on hunting and fishing for generations. The Xibe people who moved westward mainly grow rice and are engaged in animal husbandry as well. The Xibe festivals are basically the same as the Han and Manchu, such as the "Spring Festival", "Ching Ming Festival", "Dragon Boat Festival" and so on. In addition, the 18th day of the fourth lunar month is a day in commemoration of the Xibe people’s relocation from the northeast to Xinjiang, and large-scale celebration activity is held every year.