The population is about 15 thousand. The Russian ethnic group mainly resides in the Yili, Tacheng, Altay and Urumqi in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and a few of them reside in the Heilongjiang Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The Russian ethnic group is the descendants of Russian immigrants. Due to their marriage with surrounding ethnic groups, their physique has gradually changed and carries the characteristics of the yellow race. They use the Russian language which belongs to the East Slavic branch of Slavic languages of the Indo-European language family. Russian script is generally used. The Russian people possess a high level of development in production technology, economy, culture and living standards. The Russians living in urban areas are engaged in various kinds of repairing, handicrafts and transportation industry, and some of them also do agriculture for side business. The Russians living in the countryside mostly live together and form an individual village to work in agricultural production and animal husbandry. They are skilful at gardening and beekeeping. The Russian ethnic group originally believed in the polytheism (animism). Modern Russians largely believe in the Orthodoxy Church. Their main festivals include “Easter”, “Christmas”, “Baptism”, etc. The Christmas of the Orthodox Church begins on 7 January and lasts for three days.