Yúyáng

Yuyang was the county seat of Jizhou, at the foot of the Yan Mountains where the plain east of Beijing meets the passes of the frontier. The name goes back to the Yan state, which called the district 'north of the Yu water'; the Tang made Jizhou from it in 730, and the Liao left behind the wooden Guanyin pavilion of Dule Temple, built in 984, in the town.

Under the Yuan, Jizhou belonged to the Dadu Circuit and governed five counties, Yuyang among them. Early in the Ming, Yuyang County was merged into the department, which came under Beiping and then Shuntian Prefecture. The Great Wall passes just to the north made Jizhou the namesake of the Ming frontier command of Jizhen, and Qi Jiguang, who took charge of the Jizhou troops in 1568, strengthened the wall and its watchtowers against Mongol raids.