Zūnhuà

Zunhua stands near the eastern approaches to Beijing, beneath the Yan Mountains. Its ironworks were a major centre of Ming metallurgy, smelting iron and making steel in large quantities. Fu Jun described their furnaces and organisation in his Treatise on Ironworking, compiled in 1513–1514; the works also consumed vast amounts of charcoal, placing pressure on their fuel supply. Under the Qing, the mountains near Zunhua became the site of the Eastern Imperial Tombs. The Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors were among those buried there, and the county was elevated to a prefecture in 1676 because of its proximity to the imperial mausoleums.