Fǔzhōu

Fuzhou was an older name in the Zhangbei country north of Xuanfu, on the route towards the Mongolian plateau. Its Jin administration had been centred on Rouyuan. Under the Yuan, the same regional centre became Longxing Circuit and then Xinghe Circuit, with its seat at Gaoyuan. The road towards Shangdu gave this country a place in the movements of the Yuan court between its capitals, and Emperor Wuzong had the city of Zhongdu built northwest of the town in the early 1300s.

The Ming inherited an exposed northern position. Li Wenzhong's northern campaigns took Xinghe in the first years of the dynasty, and a heavily garrisoned guard post later stood alongside Kaiping as an outer defence of Xuanfu. In 1422 Arughtai's attack drove the establishment back inside Xuanfu, leaving the former seat abandoned. The surrounding cultivated country nevertheless remained important in later frontier debates. Ming officials discussing the defences of Zhangjiakou described the fertile eighteen villages of Xinghe beyond the existing line, weighing their value against the difficulty of protecting a long, projecting frontier.