Xanadu

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Xanadu Chinese: 上都; pinyin: Shàngdū Shangdu, Shang-tu, or Kaiping

Coordinates: 42°21′35″N 116°10′47″E / 42.35972°N 116.17972°E / 42.35972; 116.17972

Coordinates: 42°21′35″N 116°10′45″E / 42.35972°N 116.17917°E / 42.35972; 116.17917

Xanadu, also spelled Shangdu or Shang-tu (Chinese: 上都; pinyin: Shàngdū) and also known as Kaiping (simplified Chinese: 开平; traditional Chinese: 開平; pinyin: Kāi Píng), was the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China, after he decided to move the capital of the Yuan Dynasty to Dadu, present-day Beijing. The city was located in what is now called Inner Mongolia, 275 kilometres (171 mi) north of Beijing, about 28 kilometres (17 mi) northwest of the modern town of Duolun. The layout of the capital is roughly square shaped with sides of about 2200m, it consists of an "Outer City", and an "Inner City" in the southeast of the capital which has also roughly a square layout with sides about 1400m, and the palace, where Kublai Khan stayed in summer. The palace has sides of roughly 550m, 40% the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The most visible modern-day remnants are the earthen walls though there is also a ground-level, circular brick platform in the centre of the inner enclosure.

Xanadu was visited by Venetian explorer Marco Polo in 1275. It became fabled as a metaphor for opulence, most famously in the English Romantic Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan.

[edit] External links

• Mr. Don Croner's report on present-day condition of Shangdu, nice photos, and travel directions.
• Shangdu Google Satellite Map (maplandia)
• Shangdu city uncovered (chinadaily.com)
• Sites of the Yuan Dynasty Upper Capital (Xanadu) and Middle Capital (UNESCO World Heritage)
• More directions to Yuan Shangdu ([1])