Yǒngchuān

Yongchuan lies in the hills of eastern Sichuan, west of Chongqing. Yongchuan County was established in 776 under the Tang dynasty and belonged to Changzhou. Its name is traditionally explained by three streams meeting south of the town in a shape resembling the character yong. The county's administrative status changed during the Mongol period before the name was restored. In the Qing dynasty, officials and local scholars compiled county gazetteers, preserving accounts of the district and its communities. The Yangtze flows along the southern part of the wider district; Songgai was a river port and a gathering place for merchants travelling between surrounding counties and Chongqing. Farms, market settlements and river transport connected the hilly countryside to the broader Sichuan basin.