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Shangdu

For other uses, see Shangdu (disambiguation) and Xanadu.
Site of Xanadu
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Ruins of Shangdu
LocationShangdu Town, Zhenglan Banner, Inner Mongolia, China
CriteriaCultural: ii, iii, iv, vi
Reference1389
Inscription2012 (36th Session)
Area25,131.27 ha
Buffer zone150,721.96 ha
Coordinates42°21′35″N 116°10′45″E / 42.35972°N 116.17917°E / 42.35972; 116.17917
Shangdu is located in Inner Mongolia
Shangdu
Location of Shangdu
Shangdu is located in China
Shangdu
Shangdu (China)
Shangdu
Chinese上都
Hanyu PinyinShàngdū
Literal meaningUpper Capital
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinShàngdū
Wade–GilesShang-tu
Shangtu
IPA[ʂâŋtú]
Shangdu (here spelled Ciandu, as Marco Polo spelled it) on the French map of Asia made by Sanson d'Abbeville, geographer of King Louis XIV, dated 1650. It also shows a Xandu east of Cambalu, where English maps placed it. Like some other European maps of the time, this map shows Cambalu and Pequin as two different cities, but they were in fact the same city, now called Beijing. When this map was made, Shangdu had been in ruins for almost three centuries.
Even though Matteo Ricci and Bento de Góis had already proven that Cathay is simply another name for China, the English cartographer John Speed in 1626 continued the tradition of showing "Cathaya, the Chief Kingdome of Great Cam" to the northeast of China. On his map, he placed Xandu east of the "Cathayan metropolis" Cambalu

Shangdu (Chinese: 上都; pinyin: Shàngdū; pronounced [ʂâŋtú]; lit. 'Upper Capital'; Mongolian: ᠱᠠᠩᠳᠤ, Mongolian Cyrillic: Шанду, romanized: Šandu), popularly known in English as Xanadu (/ˈzænəduː/ ZAN-ə-doo), was the summer capital[1][2] of the Yuan dynasty of China before Kublai moved his throne to the former Jin dynasty capital of Zhōngdū (Chinese: 中都; lit. 'Middle Capital') which was renamed Khanbaliq (present-day Beijing). Shangdu is located in the present-day Zhenglan Banner, Inner Mongolia. In June 2012, under its popular English name Xanadu, it was made a World Heritage Site for its historical importance and for the unique blending of Mongolian and Chinese culture.[3]

Venetian traveller Marco Polo described Shangdu to Europeans after visiting it in 1275. It was conquered in 1369 by the Ming army under Chang Yuchun. Historical accounts of the city inspired the famous poem Kubla Khan, written by English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797, who called it “Xanadu”.

  1. ^ Tomoko, Masuya (2013). "Seasonal capitals with permanent buildings in the Mongol empire". In Durand-Guédy, David (ed.). Turko-Mongol Rulers, Cities and City Life. Leiden: Brill. p. 239.
  2. ^ Atwood, Christopher P. (2004). Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. Facts on File. p. 605.
  3. ^ "Xanadu (China), Bassari Country (Senegal) and Grand Bassam (Côte d'Ivoire) added to UNESCO's World Heritage List". Archived from the original on April 15, 2016.
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