Chípíng

Chiping occupies the flat Yellow River floodplain of northwestern Shandong, about 120 kilometres west of Jinan. The land slopes only gently from southwest to northeast, following the drift of the old river channels, and its name means “the level ground by Mount Chi”, after a small hill that rises from the plain.

The Qin dynasty already set up a county of Chiping in Dong Commandery, so the place has been an administrative centre for more than two thousand years. Under the Ming and Qing it belonged to Dongchang Prefecture, whose seat at Liaocheng stood on the Grand Canal, together with neighbouring counties such as Boping and Tangyi. The surrounding land is rich farmland, and the settlement pattern is one of many small market towns and villages spread over a wide agricultural plain, linked by roads and paths across the level ground.