Xīnchéng

Xincheng is an old county town on the Shandong plain, associated with the scholarly Wang family. Its ancestors settled here in the late Yuan period, and generations of descendants passed the civil examinations and served as officials under the Ming and Qing. Their prominence earned the family the saying that the Wangs filled half the court. One of its best-known members, Wang Shizhen, became a leading Qing poet and rose to minister of justice before retiring to his home town in 1704.