Gāoyuán

Gaoyuan was the county at the seat of Yuan Xinghe Circuit, in the country of present-day Zhangbei. Its earlier name was Rouyuan; under the Mongols it became Gaoyuan, serving the administration first called Longxing and renamed Xinghe in 1312. The town lay on the route towards Shangdu, and Yuan rulers travelling between their capitals stopped in this frontier country.

Ming conquest transformed its role. Li Wenzhong took Xinghe in 1370, and Lan Yu defeated Mongol forces there in 1374. The county organisation disappeared in the early Ming, while Xinghe became a heavily defended guard post paired with Kaiping beyond the main passes. This exposed position proved difficult to retain. In 1422 Arughtai's forces captured the town; the guard establishment was moved inside Xuanfu and the old site abandoned. Gaoyuan's changing fortunes followed the retreat of a former circuit capital into an increasingly militarised and contested frontier.