Gāomíng

Gaoming lies west of the Pearl River Delta, in a country of hills and waterways. Once part of Gaoyao County, it took its name from a local patrol station. A county gazetteer dates its establishment as a separate county to 1475, during the Ming dynasty. Its new seat stood beside a river; in 1480 officials strengthened the town with walls of stone and brick and three gates. Floods and storms damaged the defenses in the sixteenth century, and successive magistrates had them repaired.