Huángcǎobà

Huangcaoba was the settlement around which the later county town of Xingyi developed in southwestern Guizhou. It lay within the southern country of Pu'an, where indigenous chiefly jurisdictions, military posts and regular officials overlapped. Xu Xiake passed through in 1638 and recorded the surrounding limestone landscape, leaving a description distinct from later accounts of the modern city.

Qing administration progressively strengthened its presence. A Pu'an departmental official was stationed at Huangcaoba, and a stone enclosure was built in the 1740s. The settlement became an important point in the border country linking Guizhou with Yunnan and Guangxi. Following the disturbances of the 1790s, Xingyi County was established at Huangcaoba in 1798. Its county seat was distinct from the seat of the larger Xingyi Prefecture.