Xichang

Xichang is a city in and the seat of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in the south of Sichuan, China. The Qiongdu were the local people at the time of contact with China. The county of Qiongdu is attested in the area from the Han dynasty. Under the Song dynasty, a local lord was given the title of "King of the Qiongdu" (Qiongdu Wang). The area formed part of the medieval Kingdom of Dali and was subdued by the Mongolians from 1272–4, after which it was incorporated into Yunnan of the Yuan dynasty. It was organized as the Jiandu Ningyuan duhufu, qianhufu, or wanhufu but continued to be often known as Jiandu.[2] In the book of his travels, Marco Polo recorded that the people of Jiandu and its hinterland used no coins but rods of gold bullion reckoned in saggi. A small change was made using half-catty pieces of molded salt, each reckoned as one-eightieth of a saggio of pure gold.[3] Under the Qing, it was officially known as Ningyuan Commandery[2] but also continued to be referenced under the old name Jianchang. In the 19th century, it was the center of Sichuan's production of "white wax".[4] In 1850, a magnitude-7.5 earthquake killed more than 20,600 people in Xichang. The city walls in Xichang County, three gate towers—the west, south and north—and some prisons collapsed.[5]