i have been traveling in the inner mongolia in the past ten days. it's a business trip, but i spared some time for sightseeing and reading on mongolian history to further deepen my understandings of chinese history in a broader context.
inner mongolia (together with gansu, ningxia and part of old manchuria) is perhaps one of china's most ethnically interlocked region. it's believed that most chinese living in north have some mixed blood and authentic Han chinese today are only available in some part of southern china. the blend, either through war or through trade and marriage, greatly enhanced the diversity of chinese cultures and mitigated the ethnocentric views of Han chinese.
the downside of it, in my opinion, is that the nomads north and west of core region of china were either too weak or too strong, as a result, they failed to reach an equilibrium in most time of the history and left the region dominated by one major ethnic group. the strive to dominate or defend became a theme of northern chinese history and coined into the DNA of chinese culture.
related links:
sun bin -
Understanding China's ethnic groups