Rucheng (汝城) is a county in the southeastern corner of Chenzhou, where the borders of Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi come together, and it belongs culturally to the Hakka region. Its rivers part company in three directions, some flow to the Xiang, some to the Gan and some to the Pearl, which gives the county the saying that the rooster crows in three provinces while the water pours into three rivers. Mountains cover about four-fifths of the county, so forestry is its natural base, and its minerals include tungsten, iron, coal and limestone. The Yao people form a substantial minority of the population, with several Yao townships. It is a place defined less by any single monument than by its position at the meeting of three provinces.
Rucheng is a border county where Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi come together and its rivers drain toward three watersheds. Its Lianxi Academy remembers Zhou Dunyi, once the local magistrate, and the county lives on forestry, tungsten, iron and coal.