Yúshù

Yushu takes its name from the settlement of Guyushu, or Lone Elm, on the Songliao plain. The surrounding country lay beyond the Willow Palisade and was restricted by the early Qing court, though settlers nevertheless came to clear land. Changning County was established in 1727 to administer migrants and abolished ten years later. In 1824 officials at Boduna recruited cultivators to open land for banner settlers; much of this cultivation lay in the Yushu area, where numbered clearings gave villages their names.