Qíjiāng

Qijiang lies in the hill and river country south of Chongqing, on routes between the Sichuan basin and the Guizhou uplands. In 1363, near the end of Mongol rule, the local Nánpíng Qijiang chief's office was replaced by Qijiang County. The county remained under Chongqing prefecture during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Qijiang River flows north toward the Yangtze, while roads through the hills connected communities and carried trade southward. At Dongxi, in the wider county, the old Sichuan salt route took shape during the Ming and developed further under the Qing; its surviving buildings and paths recall the traffic that joined the basin to the southwest. River life also brought hazards: local records cited by the Chongqing water authorities describe major floods in 1602, 1678, 1734 and 1786. Qijiang's settlements thus depended on both the opportunities and the difficulties of movement through this mountainous corridor.