Sānyuán

Sanyuan lies in central Shaanxi, north of the Wei River plain and near the lower Jing River. The county was established under Northern Wei in 446; an early geographical work explains its name by reference to three nearby tablelands. During the Ming and Qing periods, merchants from Sanyuan became prominent among Shaanxi's trading networks. They carried grain, cloth and tea toward the northwestern frontier and obtained salt permits, then traded in salt from the Huai region and Sichuan. Their activities connected a farming county on the Guanzhong plain with markets and supply routes far beyond it.