Xanadu, China

Shangdu

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	Duolun County, People's Republic of China
Coordinates	42°21′35″N 116°10′45″E / 42.359722222222°N 116.17916666667°E / 42.359722222222; 116.17916666667
Criteria	Cultural: (ii), (iii), (iv), (vi)
Reference	1389
Inscription	2012 (36th Session)
Location of Shangdu
[]

Shangdu (Mandarin: [ʂɑ̂ŋ tú]), also known as Xanadu (/ˈzæ.nə.duː/; 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.

Shangdu was located in what is now called Inner Mongolia, 350 kilometres (220 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 2,200 m; 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 1,400 m, and the palace, where Kublai Khan stayed in summer. The palace has sides of roughly 550 m, 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.