The Chaoxian ethnic group (also written as 'Korean'), with a total population of 1,923,842 according to the census taken in 2000, is scattered mainly in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning Provinces. Smaller populations of Chaoxian people live in other areas in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, Beijing, Xi'an and other cities. Members of this minority living in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Perfecture in Jilin Province speak and write in Korean while those living in other parts of China usually speak Chinese.The ancestors of the present Chaoxian people were immigrants from the Korean Peninsula. When they settled in China they gradually formed unique customs and evolved into a Chinese ethnic group. In the national census of 1982, it was found that the Chaoxian had been living in the Northeast region of China from as early as the Ming and Qing Dynasties.