Jǔxiàn

Juxian stands in the hills of southeastern Shandong on the site of the old capital of the state of Ju, a Spring and Autumn power. When Yan's general Yue Yi swept through Qi in 284 BC and took more than seventy cities, only Ju and Jimo held out, and Tian Dan later won the kingdom back. In the Ming and Qing the town was the seat of Ju Department.

Its walls were rebuilt in 1511 and faced in brick in 1597. In 1668 the great earthquake along the Tan-Lu fault shook the whole department, killing perhaps twenty thousand people in Ju alone, and wrecked the walls; repairs began the next year. Over the following decades the gates were reoriented: in 1685 the east gate was turned to face north and the south gate to face west, and in 1760 a locally financed project restored both to their original directions. Magistrate Zhao Jinji divided the work into sections, and it took three years.