Manchu people are descended from a warrior tribe in north China. After absorbing several Caucasoid races of Siberia, they moved southward and invaded China, overthrowing the former Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and establishing the Qing Dynasty in 1644.

As an ethnic group originally living in forests and mountains in northeast China, Manchu people excelled in archery and horsemanship. Children were taught the swan-hunting art with wooden bows and arrows at six or seven, and teenagers learned to ride on horseback in full hunting gear, racing through forests and mountains. Women, as well as men, were skilled equestrians.

Like Han people and other ethnic groups in China, over 70 per cent of Manchu people are engaged in agriculture-related jobs. Their main crops include soybean, sorghum, corn, millet, tobacco and apple. They also raise tussah silkworms. For some Manchu people, living in remote mountainous areas, gathering ginseng, mushroom and edible fungus makes an important sideline. Most of the Manchu people in cities, who are better educated, are engaged in traditional and modern industries.

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