Lingnan. Before the Tang dynasty (618-907), the region of the two Lingnan provinces (Guangdong and Guangxi) was infested with malaria. Few Han Chinese from the North, other than those expelled to the frontiers, crossed the ranges southward. After both the Tang and Song (960-1279) governments developed military agricultural colonies, the migration of northern people into Guangdong increased steadily. Thereafter, Fujian and Chejiang became the cultural centers of the Han Chinese when the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) relocated its capital to Hangzhou. After the downfall of the Northern Song (960-1125) dynasty and the occupation of North China by Genghis Khan's powerful armies, the Han Chinese in the Yangzi (Yangtze) River valley migrated south across the Nanling ranges into the Xi River basin. In Ming times (1368—1644) many Han Chinese settled primarily in Lingnan, a favorable climatic region of the subtropical...