Chálíng

Chaling stands beside the Mi River in eastern Hunan. Its old town walls face the water, where the Nanpu ferry once carried travellers across. In the Southern Song, after floods damaged the riverside wall, the magistrate Liu Zimai placed a great iron rhinoceros by the river in the hope of restraining the water.

War at the end of the Yuan left deep scars in the district. The Chaling scholar Liu Sanwu described a landscape of ruined settlements and scattered families. Under the Ming and Qing, the town and its walls were enlarged; archaeological investigation of the western wall has found evidence of rebuilding in the Qianlong reign. The iron rhinoceros remained a reminder of the town's long contest with the river.