Huáróng

Huarong stands on the Huarong River north of Lake Dongting, in a low country of waterways and fields. Its county town, also called Rongcheng, grew across the river. Along the lake margin, people enclosed silted land with embankments, creating fields in a landscape where the boundaries between water and cultivation could change.

By the time the county gazetteer was revised in 1612, six embanked tracts had been formed around Huangpeng and neighbouring lands. Around 1602 the playwright Tang Xianzu visited a friend in Huarong and, accompanied by the magistrate, went to see the work at Gongcheng Lake. Enclosure continued under the Qing as lakeside counties expanded their protected fields.