Xanadu
, or more accurately Shàngdu
(Chinese: wikt:?; pinyin: Shàngdu), 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, north of Beijing, about 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, covering an area of around 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.
It was designed by Chinese architect Liu Bingzhong and built in the town of Kaipíng (simplified Chinese: traditional Chinese: wikt:?; pinyin: Kai Píng in from 1252 to 1256 during the Mongol invasion. [1] In 1264 it was renamed Shàngdu, the "Upper Capital". [2] At its height, over 100,000 people lived within its walls. In 1369 Shàngdu fell under the Ming's occupation, destroying it by arson, and the reigning Khan, Toghun Temür, fled the city.
Today, only a ruin remains, surrounded a grassy mound that was once the city walls. Since 2002 a reconstruction effort has begun. In March 2008, China submitted a proposal to UNESCO to make the ruin a World Heritage Site under the title "Sites of the Yuan Dynasty Upper Capital (Xanadu) and Middle Capital". [3]
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