Shàngdū

Shangdu, known to distant travellers as Xanadu, rises on the grasslands north of the Great Wall. Designed by Liu Bingzhong for Kublai Khan, the city brought together a walled palace, an imperial city and an outer city within a wider landscape of camps and hunting grounds. Mountains stand to the north and the upper Luan River flows to the south. Here Mongol court traditions met the architecture and institutions of settled China.

Kublai took the title of Great Khan at the city in 1260, and it became the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty. Each year the court travelled between Shangdu and Dadu, receiving princes and envoys and conducting government amid the grasslands. The city's palaces and gardens impressed visitors, including Marco Polo. In 1359 Red Turban rebels entered Shangdu and burned its palaces. After the Ming took Dadu in 1368, the Yuan emperor withdrew north to Shangdu, but Ming forces captured the city the following year. The court retreated farther into the steppe, leaving the summer capital behind.