Guìběi

The Guìběi are Pinghua-speaking Han people of the mountain corridor where Guangxi, Hunan and Guangdong meet, around the old Linhe prefecture on the He River, now Hezhou. Their speech, Northern Pinghua, is one of the two main branches of Pinghua; contact with Hunanese and South-western Mandarin has made its local varieties differ sharply, some carrying Xiang features.

Han settlement began with migrants entering Guangxi through Hunan in the first millennium, and the name Pinghua is traditionally traced to the Northern Song Pingnan Army: after Di Qing defeated the Zhuang rebel Nong Zhigao at Kunlun Pass in 1053, his soldiers and families settled and kept their camp speech.

The Han set up Linhe county here as early as 111 BC; the Sui made it Hezhou in 589, and in 1377 the Ming reduced it to He county under Pingyue prefecture.