Shudao

In ancient times it was the heart of the state of Qin, nowadays it is the central region of Shaanxi.

In 316 BC, the state of Qin, the capital of which was then Xianyang (near present-day Xi'an), conquered Shu and its eastern neighbour, the Ba Federation.

In the Tang period, Li Bai wrote about the "hard road to Shu", and about "ladders to heaven made of timber and stones".

One such conflict was after the overthrow of the Qin dynasty in 206 BC, when the successful leader of the revolt, Xiang Yu, banished his strongest rival Liu Bang to be ruler of the remote kingdoms of Han, Shu and Ba.

Retreating with his army to Hanzhong, at the suggestion of his advisor Zhang Liang, Liu destroyed the plank roads immediately after his passage in order to stop any pursuers.

Even today, Chinese say “openly repair the plank roads, secretly march on Chencang” (明修栈道，暗渡陈仓) to describe this stratagem.

Later Liu Bang founded the Han dynasty and in peacetime, the mountain roads were rebuilt.

On his Asian journey (1271–1295) Marco Polo spent the years 1275 to 1295 in China during the Yuan period.

Later, China's centres of population and economy moved out of the western mountain regions to the eastern plains.

During the troubles at the end of Ming period, Sichuan suffered material damage and loss of population through various raids and invasions.