Xī'ānzhōu

Xi'anzhou was a frontier district in the dry hills north of the Liupan Mountains, around the routes between Guyuan and the Yellow River. Its territory included land around the upper Qing River, which rises near Kaicheng and flows north toward the great river. The Song established the Zhou in a region contested with Western Xia, where valleys and pastures supported both movement and settlement. Its name belongs to this northwestern borderland rather than to the distant city of Xi'an.