Gù'ān

Gu'an lies south of Beijing beside the Yongding River. Its communities cultivated the plain and developed willow weaving, a local craft recorded from the Ming Yongle reign. The river could also threaten the capital and the fields downstream. In 1698 officials cut a new channel and built embankments past Gu'an and neighbouring Yongqing, seeking to restrain its floods and give the river a more stable course.