Lánlíng

Lanling in southern Shandong lay beside a major change in the routes carrying goods between northern and southern China. From 1594 to 1604, the Ming government mobilized labour to excavate the Jia River transport channel along the lower western Jia River. The new waterway extended more than 260 li and bypassed some 330 li of dangerous Yellow River navigation.

The works gave Lanling access to a navigable route toward the Beijing–Hangzhou canal system. Boats could follow the Jia River channel instead of relying on the hazardous stretch of the Yellow River that the scheme was designed to avoid. Inscriptions on the old town's ceremonial gateways celebrated connections toward Zou and Lu, and toward Huai and Xu. These names expressed the wider connections associated with the town's Ming and Qing commercial setting. Lanling's position was therefore shaped by a specific engineering project as well as by the older roads of southern Shandong.