Xanadu

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This article is about the summer capital of Kublai Khan's empire. For other uses, see Xanadu (disambiguation).

Xanadu or Zanadu (Chinese: 上都; pinyin: Shàngdū) was the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Mongol Empire, which covered much of Asia.

[edit] The city of Xanadu (Shengdu)

Xanadu (Shengdu) was in Inner Mongolia, 275 km north of Beijing, northwest of Duolun and northeast of Lanqui/Zhenglan Banner/Dund Hot. The capital consisted of the square-shaped "Outer City" (2,200 metres square), "Inner City" (1,400 metres square), and the palace, where Kublai Khan stayed in summer. The palace was 550 metres square, 40% the size of Forbidden City in Beijing (China). 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.

The Mongolian Khans made very few changes to their country, imbibing much of the Confucianist and Taoist philosophies, and remodelling their government on the native dynasties they had defeated. However, they opened up the empire to westerners, allowing travellers like Venetian explorer Marco Polo in 1275 to report the wonders of the Eastern capital to their fellow Europeans.

[edit] Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Xanadu

The reported splendour of Xanadu later inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge to write his great poem Kubla Khan and caused Xanadu to become a metaphor for opulence. Xanadu is remembered today largely thanks to this poem, which contains the following often-quoted lines:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round:

Coleridge used artistic license with his poem, and few aspects of the description are in evidence at the actual site.

[edit] Xanadu in popular culture

Canadian rock band Rush have a song called "Xanadu" on the album A Farewell to Kings which incorporates lines of Coleridge's poem.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood's song "Welcome to the Pleasuredome is based on the Coleridge poem.
The 1980 film Xanadu (film) is a popular Cult Classic film.
It is the name of Charles Foster Kane's Mansion in the Classic Movie Citzen Kane 1941.
The British pop band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich had a massive hit record with "The Legend of Xanadu" in 1968. The song had a Spanish theme and feel to it rather than a Mongolian one!