As of the latest census conducted in 2020, there are about 50 million people throughout the province. Within Guangxi, there are 14 prefectures, 109 counties, and 1396 townships. The name is a combination of "Wide" and "West", or literally, the Western Expanse.
Guangxi, sometimes Romanized as Kwangshi, is an autonomous region of China that is located in South China and borders many cities in the country of Vietnam. Guangxi is sometimes still referred to as a province by the People's Republic of China, but the area has become its autonomous region since 1958, with the capital sitting in the city of Nanning. The autonomous region is located in mountainous terrain in the far south of the Chinese country. The region was given province status in 226 AD during the Yuan dynasty but was known as a wild country even well into the 20th century.
Guangxi has the second largest number of ethnic minorities in China by way of population size, following Yunnan. The most populous number of people in the region is the Zhuang people, who make up almost one-third of the ethnic diversity within the area. Alongside the widely-known Mandarin Chinese, there are pockets of people that speak Cantonese, Pinghua, and Kam. This area also has a large minority of Hakka people, who are known for their unique cuisine that combines both traditional Chinese and eastern steppe culture.
Guangxi was originally inhabited by a melange of tribes, known to the Chinese as the Bayiue tribal people, which is a name derived from the Vietnamese language. It officially became a part of China during the Qin dynasty in the year 214 BC. The Han Chinese people claimed most of southern China for the Qin emperor before his death, which subsequently caused a civil war. This permitted general Zhao, the main commander of the Chinese armies in the region, to establish a separate kingdom under his own sovereign rule, which was known as Nanyue. Although he had complete control over the people and the region, Nanyue was submissive to the independent Han dynasty. This kept on until 111 BC, which marked the expansion of the Han dynasty downwards.
The Guangxi-Hunan Railway bisects the region diagonally from another region, named Quanzhou, in the northeast on the border between Pinxiang and Hunan. The railway passes through Guangxi's three main cities of Guilin, Liuzhou, and Nanning. Many railways connect the autonomous region to various Chinese and Vietnamese provinces, consisting of one of the most extensive railway systems in Asia. The major attraction of Guangxi is Guilin, which is one of the three principal cities.
The city is well known for the Li River among the karst peaks. It used to be the capital of Guangxi, housing the famous JingJiang Prince's City, which was the residence of the old prince. The building is still open to the public. Downriver is the river of Yangshuo, which is a popular destination for foreigners.