Lù'ān

Lù'ān lay in western Ānhuī where the Huái country meets the Dàbié uplands. In 1291 the Yuán set up Lù'ān Zhōu. Under the Míng the zhōu belonged to Lúzhōu Prefecture, and the Qīng raised it in 1724 to a directly administered zhōu. The old walled city stood on the west bank of the Pì River, with four main gates, and the zhōu office near the Drum Tower. In the early Míng the district began sending tea to court, among the earliest records of the mountain teas for which the area later became known.