Línzhōu

Linzhou lies at the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, where rocky hills descend towards the plain. Its older name, Linlü, came from the mountains to the west. In 1370 the Ming reduced the prefecture to Lin County, under Zhangde. Local gazetteers described the difficulty of finding water away from the rivers: stony ground made wells hard to dig, and fields suffered when the rains failed.