Shangdu

Shangdu was the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty, built between 1252 and 1256 under the Chinese architect Liu Bingzhong for Kublai Khan in what is now Zhenglan Banner, Inner Mongolia, about 350 kilometers north of Beijing, its design blending Confucian city planning with Mongolian steppe traditions. Visited by the Venetian traveler Marco Polo around 1275, it later inspired the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who read a 1614 account of Xandu by Samuel Purchas and composed his poem beginning In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree; the ruined site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012 for its significance to Yuan dynasty history and architecture.