Dà'ān

Da'an lies in the wooded hills west of the Hanzhong basin, on the old road into Sichuan. Tradition says the Qin king Huiwen tricked the king of Shu with stone oxen said to drop gold, and the Five Strongmen of Shu opened the road to haul them back, making the Jinniu, or Golden Ox, road. Local tradition recalls a Qin post station and place names such as Stone Ox Post along the route. The Song set up a military prefecture here, Da'an Jun, in 996; the Yuan made the post at Jinniu town into Da'an Prefecture, soon reduced to a county. In 1485 the Ming founded Ningqiang Prefecture on the site.