The population is over 20 thousand. The Bonan people mainly reside in the Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County of Gansu Province, and a few of them live in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu Province and Xunhua County of Qinghai Province. The Bonan people in the habitation area use the Bonan language which belongs to the Mongolian languages of the Altaic language family. Most of the Bonan people are also proficient in Chinese and can use the Chinese characters. “Bonan” is their self-proclaimed name. Since they believe in Islam and their customs are relatively similar to those of the local Hui people, they were called the “Bonan Hui” in the past. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, they were given the name “Bonan” according to their will. The Bonan people are mainly engaged in agriculture and a few of them are involved in the animal husbandry and handicraft industry. The Bonan believe in Sunni Islam within which the old and new sects are divided. Except for a few traditional festivals such as the “Spring Festival”, the festivals of Bonan are all Islamic religious festivals, such as “Eid al-Fitr”, “Eid al-Adha” and “Mawlid”.