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Shangdu

Shangdu
Chinese
Hanyu Pinyin Shàngdū
Literal meaning Upper Capital
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Site of Xanadu
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Location China
Type Cultural
Criteria ii, iii, iv, vi
Reference 1389
UNESCO region Asia-Pacific
Inscription history
Inscription 2012 (36th Session)

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

Shangdu (Mandarin: [ʂɑ̂ŋ tú]), also known as Xanadu (/ˈzæ.nə.d/; Mongolian: Šandu), was the capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty in China, before he decided to move his throne to the Jin dynasty capital of Zhōngdū (Chinese: ; literally: "Middle Capital"), which he renamed Khanbaliq, present-day Beijing. Shangdu then became his summer capital. Shangdu (Xanadu) was visited by the Venetian traveller Marco Polo in about 1275, and was destroyed in 1369 by the Ming army under Zhu Yuanzhang. In 1797 historical accounts of the city inspired the famous poem Kubla Khan by the English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.


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