Xanadu, the legendary summer capital of Kublai Khan. Founded in the 13th century as Shangdu, it was carefully planned with grand palaces, gardens, and fortifications. Marco Polo described it as a dazzling center of wealth and culture, while centuries later Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan transformed Xanadu into a symbol of mystical paradise and fleeting grandeur. Although the city declined after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, its ruins in Inner Mongolia—now a UNESCO World Heritage Site—confirm its historical reality. Xanadu endures as both an archaeological site and a timeless symbol of beauty, power, and imagination.
