Xúnyáng

Xúnyáng stands where the Xún River meets the Han in the mountain country of southern Shaanxi, on a bend so tightly curved that the town is called the Taiji city, after the yin-yang symbol. The Qin set a pass at the river mouth and a county called Xúnyáng; the Eastern Han abolished it, and the Western Jin restored it in 283. After the Yuan left it vacant, the Ming set up the county again in 1370, under Xìng'ān Zhōu.

Downstream, Shǔhé town grew at another confluence on the Han. In the Qianlong reign the governor Bì Yuán described it as a crowded place where goods passed between boats and land transport; a road from there followed the Shu River toward the provincial capital. Boats carried timber, lacquer, tung oil and medicinal herbs toward Hankou, and merchants from Huguang built guild halls on the quay. Its riverside trade linked the county to the wider Han valley.