Linqing

Linqing is a county-level city under Liaocheng, set at the confluence of the Wei River and the Grand Canal, 380 kilometres from Beijing on the railway line to Kowloon. The county covers 955 square kilometres, and the land runs from 29 to 38 metres above sea level. In Ming and Qing times it was a great centre for the distribution of textiles, grain and bricks, and it is famous as the place where the tiles of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City were produced. The canal brought the clay in and carried the finished bricks north. The Sheli Pagoda stands near the water, and the town keeps two Ming mosques, the ruins of the old customs house and the city museum, housed in the building group known as Aotouji.