Origins of China's Early Settlers

Archaeological and genetic evidence indicates that the earliest inhabitants of what is now China migrated from Central Asia (Mongolian steppe, Siberian fringes) during the Paleolithic, ~40,000+ years ago.

• Paleolithic hunter-gatherers → Neolithic millet/rice farmers (Yellow & Yangtze River valleys, 7000–5000 BCE).
• Yangshao, Longshan, Liangzhu cultures laid foundations for Chinese civilization.
• Han Chinese (majority today) trace ancestry to these Neolithic Yellow River populations.

Later migrations added diversity: Tibeto-Burman groups (SW), Austroasiatic (S), Turkic/Mongolic (N/NW), Austronesian (coastal/ Taiwan). But the core cultural lineage stems from indigenous Neolithic farmers of the Central Plains.