Xiàjīn

Xiajin lies on the plain of northwestern Shandong, among the traces of former Yellow River channels. Repeated shifts of the river left sandy ground where mulberry groves took root. The county had a long tradition of growing the trees, and by the middle Qing period their numbers had greatly increased; a local gazetteer described branches so close together that one could move from tree to tree for many li. The county's earliest recorded gazetteer was compiled in 1540 under the magistrate Yi Shizhong.