Shàngyóu

Shangyou lies in the hills west of Ganzhou, on the upper waters of the Zhang River. Under the Ming it belonged to Nan'an Prefecture, whose seat lay at Dayu to the south. The countryside included fortified settlements such as Yingqian, one of the earthen-walled towns built in southern Jiangxi during an unsettled age. These enclosures resembled small county towns in their defences and offered local people a place of refuge amid the conflicts that troubled the mountain districts.