Píngquán

Pingquan lies among the hills north of the Great Wall, in a region once associated with the Kharachin Mongols. Its settlement was known as Bagou, or Eight Gullies, and became a place of exchange between Mongol traders and merchants from the agricultural provinces. Livestock products could be traded for goods needed on the grasslands. The Qing established a subprefecture at Bagou in 1729. In 1778 it became Pingquan, named for a spring in the town; that spring had been cleared and marked with a stone inscription a few years earlier. The administrative changes accompanied growing settlement and trade in the border country.