Huáiníng

Huáiníng was the seat county of Ānqìng, the port on the north bank of the Yangtze whose name forms the first half of Ānhuī. The prefecture took the name Ānqìng in 1147, and in 1260 the Yangtze defense commissioner Mǎ Guāngzǔ rebuilt the city walls against the Mongols; from then on prefecture and county shared one city, and the whole urban area lay in Huáiníng until the end of the Qīng. A Yuán route in 1276, it was held against the Red Turbans in 1353, and in 1361 Zhū Yuánzhāng renamed it Níngjiāng before restoring the name Ānqìng the next year.

In 1637, as rebel bands approached, the Míng created a governor for the four prefectures of Ānqìng, Lúzhōu, Chízhōu and Tàipíng, and placed him in Ānqìng, the city's first. The Qīng kept the post, and from 1662 a governor was based here for good. In 1667 Ānhuī became a province with offices still at Jiāngníng, and in 1760 its treasurer's office moved to Ānqìng, making the Huáiníng city a provincial capital.