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Yongping prefecture was a administrative division of China during the Ming dynasty, belonging to the North Zhili province.

Pre-Prefecture History
The location of Yongping prefecture seat belonged to the ancient state of Guzhu, and in the Spring-Autumn period belonged to the Yan state, and later was occupied by the Beidi kingdom of Fei (肥子国, feizi guo). During the Qin, Han, and Jin eras, this location belonged to the Liaoxi commandery (辽西郡, liaoxi jun) of Youzhou province. In the year 598 during the Sui period, Lulong County was established here, as part of Beiping commandery (北平郡, beiping jun). From the Tang to the Liao and Jin periods, it was part of Pingzhou (平州). In the Yuan period, it became the prefecture seat of Yongping circuit (永平路, yongping lu).

Prefecture
During the Yuan dynasty, it was known as Yongping circuit (永平路, yongping lu), belonging to Zhongshu province (中书省, zhongshu sheng). In the second year of the Hongwu Emperor (1369), it was changed to Pingluan prefecture (平滦府, Pingluan fu), belonging to Henan province division of North Zhili. In his fourth year (1371), it was changed to Yongping prefecture. From then on, it was placed under North Zhili. In 1491, Yongping prefecture had 23,539 households and a population of 228,944. In 1578, it had 25,094 households and a population of 255,646.

Yongping prefecture had its prefecture seat at Lulong County (now part of modern Qinghuangdao prefecture-level city), and consisted of most of modern Tangshan prefecture-level city, most of Qinghuangdao prefecture-level city, and the south-western part of Liaoning province. The ruins of the prefecture seat are still in Lulong County.

Yongping prefecture had under its jursidiction the following counties (县): Lulong (卢龙), Funing (抚宁), Changli (昌黎), and the following military districts (卫): Yongping (永平卫, yongping wei) and Shanhai (山海卫, shanhai wei). During the Ming dynasty, the counties were placed under the lijia system (里甲制度), which was the communal organization for collection of land and labor taxes.

The Qing dynasty kept the Ming-era administrative divisions for Yongping prefecture, keeping it under Zhili province, but there were some changes. In 1737, Shanhai military district (山海卫) was dissolved and replaced with Linyu county (临榆县). In the first year of the Yongzheng Emperor (1723), Yutian (玉田) and Fengrun (丰润) counties were transferred from Shuntian Prefecture to Yongping prefecture, but in 1742 these were transferred again to Zunhua directly-administered prefecture (遵化州). From 1742 onwards, the Yongping magistrate had jurisdiction over six counties (县) and one sub-prefecture (州), namely Lulong (卢龙), Funing (抚宁), Changli (昌黎), Qian'an (迁安), and Laoting (乐亭) counties, and Luanzhou (滦州) sub-prefecture.

Yongping prefecture was a strategic location as it occupied an important crossroad between Shanhaiguan and Beijing. The Qing dynasty, due to their experiences in quick, sudden attacks to overcome tough resistance at Ningcheng from the Ming, once in power adopted a strategy of placing troops in the environs of Beijing. They thus placed heavy troops in Yongping, to protect both Beijing and their eastern tombs (清东陵, Qing dongling).

Post-prefecture history
In 1913, Yongping fu was dissolved in favor of Yongping county (永平县), and in the following year Lulong county was re-established, and it became part of Jinhai circuit (津海道). In 1928, it became a part of Hebei province. During the second world war, Lulong, Funing, and Changli counties were combined into the Lufuchang (卢抚昌) super-county. In 1945, Lulong county was re-established as part of Jidong administrative-district (冀东道公署).

On 27 November, 1948, Qinghuangdao city came under the rule of the People's Republic of China and Qinyu prefecture-level city (秦榆市) was established. In March 1949, Qinghuangdao prefecture-level city was established from Qinyu and it came to be the provincial seat of Hebei, and Shanhaiguan came under Liaoxi province (辽西省). After the end of the Chinese civil war, Qinghuangdao prefecture-level city gained its current jurisdiction, including over Lulong county.