Wùchuān

Wuchuan lies in the wooded mountains north of Sinan, near the approaches to Sichuan. Its valleys have long been home to Gelao communities as well as other peoples of the Guizhou highlands. The district came under the hereditary rulers of Sizhou and later Sinan. After the Ming replaced the Sinan native administration with a prefecture governed by appointed officials, Wuchuan became a county under its authority. The county seat connected the surrounding mountain settlements with the administrative centre farther south.