Zhānhuà

Zhanhua lies in the low country near the Bohai coast, where rivers and marshes spread across northern Shandong. The place was formerly called Zhao'an; under the Jin it was renamed Zhanhua in 1195, when a town wall was first built. Its county gazetteer records the changing boundaries and communities of this coastal district. Salt water and shifting river channels marked the surrounding landscape, while the town served the villages and fields farther inland.