Zhāoyuǎn

Zhaoyuan lies among the hills of northwestern Jiaodong, a district known for its gold-bearing rock. The mountains around Linglong and Luoshan contain numerous veins, and mining in the Dengzhou and Laizhou region was already recorded under the Song. Gold continued to be worked in later centuries, although the scale and methods of extraction changed over time. Zhaoyuan's first county gazetteer was compiled in 1660, preserving a local record of the area's people and history.