Huáiyuǎn

Huáiyuǎn occupies a meeting of rivers in northern Ānhuī: the Guō joins the Huái here, and Jīng and Tú mountains face each other across the water. Tradition places Yu the Great's gathering of the lords on Tú Mountain. The name dates from 1257, when the Southern Sòng set up Huáiyuǎn Military Prefecture over Jǐngshān County on both banks; the garrison surrendered to the Mongols in 1276. In 1286 the Yellow River broke out at fifteen places and seized the beds of the Yǐng, Sì, Guō and Huái, so that floods from the north now reached this river crossing. In 1291 the Yuán merged the prefecture with Jǐngshān into Huáiyuǎn County.

The county name survived the dynastic change. The early Míng attached Huáiyuǎn to Fèngyáng Prefecture, and the Qīng kept it there.