Jilin in Manchu means ‘on the river’, referring to the song Hua River. Jilin is just one of those four provinces that make up the Antiquated region of Manchuria or, as it’s known in Chinese, Dongbei. This North Eastern region of China is not native to the Han, but was the wild west of Barbarian nomadic. During the 19th century, when the area of Primorsky Krai was ceded to the Russians, the Manchus opened up Jillin to Han migration to provide a buffer between expansionists Russia and the Manchu Heartland. Like with Heilongjiang, the once majority Manchu populous was mostly replaced by the Han a century later. Also featured in Jilin are Koreans, who make up five% of its population. They even have their own prefecture called the Yanbian, a Korean autonomous prefecture that sits west of the Tunmen River bordering North Korea.
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