Púyáng

Puyang lies on the flat alluvial plain north of the Yellow River, taking its name from its position on the sunny north bank of the old Pu River, which the floods later silted up. Tomb burials of dragons and tigers laid out in clamshell, found at Xishuipo and some 6,400 years old, show how early the plain was settled; in 629 BC the state of Wei moved its capital to nearby Diqiu. In 1004 the Song emperor Zhenzong came to the walls of Chanzhou, as the town was then called, and sealed the Treaty of Chanyuan with the Liao.

From 1144 the town was the seat of Kaizhou, under the Jin, Yuan and Ming alike. In 1369 the Ming merged Puyang County into the department, and the Qing placed Kaizhou under Daming Prefecture. The river that watered the district also broke its banks and shifted its course again and again, silting the old channels and shifting the settlements beside them.