Banner (Inner Mongolia)

:"This article is about a type of administrative division in Inner Mongolia, China.
For other meanings of the term "banner", see banner (disambiguation)."

A banner is an administrative division of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China.

Banners were first used during the Qing Dynasty, which organized the Mongols into banners except those who belonged to the Manchu Eight Banners. Each banner had sumun as nominal subdivisions, which also means arrow. In Inner Mongolia, several banners made up a league. In the rest, including Outer Mongolia, northern Xinjiang and Qinghai, Aimag (Аймаг) was the largest administrative division. While it restricted the Mongols from crossing banner borders, the dynasty protected Mongolia from population pressure from China proper.Today, banners are a county level division in the Chinese administrative hierarchy. There are 49 banners in total.

An autonomous banner is a special type of banner set up by the People's Republic of China. There are 3 autonomous banners, all of which are found in northeastern Inner Mongolia, each with a designated ethnic majority other than Han or Mongol and which is a national ethnic minority:

* Oroqin Autonomous Banner (鄂伦春自治旗) for the Oroqin
* Evenki Autonomous Banner (鄂温克族自治旗) for the Evenks
* Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner (莫力达瓦达斡尔族自治旗) for the Daur

ee also

* Eight Banner system (banner system of the Manchus)