Běiliú

Beiliu lies in the hilly southeast of Guangxi near the Guangdong border. Its name comes from the Beiliu River flowing through the district; later generations also called the stream Gui after a stone said to resemble a jade tablet. Low mountains, limestone hills and fertile valleys support rice, fruit and dense woodland. The Guimen Pass gave access toward the south and made the district a corridor to the Leizhou Peninsula and Vietnam.

A commandery was established here in 488, and the district later became a county. In 621 the Tang government created Tongzhou from Beiliu and Puning; the name soon changed to Rongzhou, whose administrative centre remained at Beiliu for more than a century. The ancient road through Guimen Pass connected the inner Guangxi valleys with the sea and with Annam.

Copper drums and kiln remains show local metalworking and ceramic traditions. Kaolin clay around the hills supported pottery, while fruit orchards and irrigated fields filled the valley floors. Workshops clustered near clay deposits and sent wares through the river and road network. By the Song period Beiliu’s pottery industry was flourishing, while agriculture supplied rice, lychees, tea and other produce. The land south of the river was called Shangli and the north Xiali, a division preserved in spoken dialects and local traditions.