Qíxiàn

Qixian lies in the central Shanxi basin, south of Taiyuan, amid cultivated land and roads linking the county with the wider region. Its villages and market town formed part of a landscape where farming and commerce sustained one another.

In Ming and Qing times Qixian was home to merchant families whose business reached far beyond Shanxi. The Qiao family of Qiaojiabao built a substantial residence during the Qianlong reign in the eighteenth century. Its courtyards exemplify the wealth that long-distance trade could bring back to the basin, where merchant households retained their homes and family ties even as their business extended across China.