Originally, the eastern section of the system was meant to prevent the movement of Han civilians from Liaoning (where they usually were tolerated, and sometimes even were encouraged to settle) into the Manchu lands of Jilin, to pick ginseng, poach in the imperial hunting preserves, or even to settle permanently. As the palisade curved south at its eastern end, toward the mouth of the Yalu River, it was also meant to keep settlers from the Yalu River valley, which the early Qing government intended to maintain as an unpopulated "no man's land" along the Korean border.