Qinglong town, or "azure dragon town", 10 kilometers north of Taiyuan in Shanxi, used to be a village surrounded by sweet wormwoods sitting at the main road connecting Shanxi province, a historical economic powerhouse, with Inner Mongolia, since early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) .

The village prospered with the booming of a big family surnamed Wang from early Qing Dynasty, when an uprising farmers' troop led by Li Zicheng deposited some military supplies at the warehouse of Wang's home as they fled from Beijing.[China.org.cn/Photo by Fan Genlin]