A family of bowed string instruments, more specifically spike fiddles, popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes upwards. They also usually have 2 strings, each with its own tuning peg, and their soundboxes are typically covered with either snakeskin (most often python) or thin wood. The tuning pegs are attached horizontally through holes drilled in the instrument's neck. Most huqin have the bow hair pass in between the strings. There are also variations of huqin with 3, 4 and sometimes 5 or more strings. 

The most common huqin are the erhu, which is tuned to a middle range, zhonghu, which is tuned to a lower register, and gaohu, which is tuned to a higher pitch. The lowest pitched huqins include the dahu and gehu, which can be considered analogous to the cello. The highest pitched huqin is the jinghu, used in the Beijing opera. Over 80 types of huqin have been documented. 

Huqin are believed to have come from the nomadic Hu people, who lived on the edges of the ancient Chinese kingdoms, possibly descending from an even earlier Mongolic instrument called the xiqin. 

Similar instruments also feature in the music traditions of neighbouring countries, including Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.