Sunshine and summer, and gentle breezes sweep across the green plains of Inner Mongolia. Also in Xanadu, once the capital of the world. Here a travel-weary Marco Polo arrived in 1275, where he was granted the honor of kneeling before the Emperor himself, the incomparable Kublai Khan.
“You are most welcome,” Kublai said to the small Italian party, which, in addition to the twenty-year-old Marco, consisted of his father and uncle.
Years later, the Venetian recorded that Kublai Khan was “of a good stature, neither too tall nor too short, but of a middle height.” He had “a fresh complexion, with black and handsome eyes, and a well-shaped nose, properly situated in his face.”
Xanadu, or Shangdu, was the summer capital of the Mongol Empire. Today, almost nothing remains, yet patient archaeologists continue to dig in the vast solitude with trowel and spade day in and day out, for as long as the weather permits.
We must go back to 1206, when Genghis Khan succeeded in uniting the Mongols into a single nation. In the years that followed, they embarked on a campaign of conquest that would shake Asia and much of the known world. By the time Marco Polo reached Xanadu, Genghis’ grandson, Kublai Khan, ruled over an empire stretching from China to Europe the largest contiguous land empire in history.
Since Kublai had also become the Emperor of China, he established his permanent seat in Beijing. However, because the city grew unbearably hot in the summer, he decided to build a summer capital on the cooler Mongolian steppes, about three hundred miles north of Beijing.
The task was entrusted to the Chinese scholar Liu Bingzhong, one of Kublai’s closest advisors. He must have been an extraordinary figure: a Buddhist monk, mathematician, architect, and town planner all in one. In 1260, just four years after construction began, Kublai was able to inaugurate the city as his political and ceremonial center.
Over the following years, monks, merchants, and ambassadors from far and wide flocked to Xanadu. But what did the city actually look like? Marco Polo provided a remarkably detailed description in the book he dictated after returning to Venice in 1295.
The most famous passage describes the palace itself:
“In this city, there is a magnificent palace of marble and other handsome stones. The halls are all gilded and adorned with paintings of men, beasts, birds, and trees, executed with such exquisite art that the sight of them fills one with wonder.”
He also describes the city itself, which during the summer months may have housed up to 100,000 inhabitants. Within the city walls lay parks, forests, meadows, and streams where the Great Khan could hunt. Marco Polo writes:
“Around this palace, there is a wall enclosing many miles. Within it, there are beautiful meadows, springs, rivers, and forests, filled with stags, fallow deer, and other wild beasts, which the Emperor keeps for his gerfalcons.”
He was particularly impressed by how architecture and nature harmonized. Chief planner Liu had clearly followed the Chinese principles of feng shui, an ancient philosophy of aligning human creations with the forces of nature.
In classical Chinese thought, mountains, rivers, and the cardinal directions held immense significance. A favorable site should have mountains or hills at its back for protection and support, and water, light, and warmth in front of it. Consequently, Xanadu faced south, while the mountains to the north provided ample shelter.
Archaeological excavations at Xanadu have confirmed many of the key features of Marco Polo’s account. The city was large, rectangular, and enclosed by multiple walls. In addition to the palace grounds, it featured numerous buildings for civic and public use, landscaped gardens, hunting reserves, and meticulously planned water systems.
While Marco Polo likely exaggerated certain details as medieval travel writers were prone to do, the overall impression of Xanadu as a splendid summer capital aligns closely with what archaeologists have uncovered.
But did Kublai Khan truly live in a palace of solid marble?
In all probability, Marco Polo’s “marble palace” was a grand structure where marble or fine stone was used for the visible, prestigious element such as plinths, pillars, stairways, and other decorative features. The main structure of the building was likely made of wood, rammed earth, brick, roof tiles, and decorated plaster, in keeping with traditional Chinese palace architecture.
Following years of excavation, archaeologists have determined that the palace was far larger than initially assumed. The digs have revealed the foundations of massive halls, paved courtyards, drainage systems, and remnants of ornamentation. Although the wooden structures have long since perished, the stone foundations prove that the palace was one of the most magnificent built during the Mongol rule from 1279 to 1368 (the Yuan Dynasty).
“In the palace itself, the ceilings are exceedingly high,” Marco Polo recounted. “Inside, the walls of the halls and chambers are covered with gold and silver, and decorated with pictures of dragons, birds, horsemen, and various beasts and battle scenes. The ceiling is ornamented in the same manner, and on every side, one sees nothing but gold and paintings. The hall is so grand and wide that it can easily accommodate more than 6,000 men for a feast. There are so many rooms that one might easily lose their way.”
The Venetian also describes Kublai Khan’s impressive “bamboo palace,” located in a park outside the city:
“It is constructed entirely of cane, but inside it is completely gilded and decorated with beasts and birds of the finest craftsmanship. It is raised upon gilded and varnished pillars. On each pillar stands a dragon with its tail wrapped around the column, its limbs outstretched to support the roof. The roof is also made of canes, so heavily varnished that it is completely waterproof... To protect the palace from the wind, every cane is secured with pegs. The Khan has had it built so that it can be dismantled and moved wherever he pleases, held in place by more than two hundred silk cords.”
Following the fall of the Mongol Dynasty in 1368, Xanadu fell victim to looting, decay, and the elements. Today’s researchers are interested not only in the city itself, but also in the cultural landscape that surrounded it. Using drones, satellite imagery, and geophysical surveys, they are mapping roads, burial grounds, water systems, and traces of the Mongol yurt encampments, even the site of the bamboo palace.
Xanadu was officially inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2012. The organization describes the site as a vast cultural heritage zone of about 25,000 hectares, representing a unique attempt to fuse nomadic Mongol culture with traditional Chinese urban planning.
I visited Kublai Khan’s summer paradise myself back in the year 2000. The following year, I published my book, The Road to Xanadu: A Journey in the Footsteps of Marco Polo. A heavy downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning dampened the experience somewhat, but I at least managed to kneel in the puddles at approximately the spot where Marco Polo fell to his knees before the Emperor of the World.
Since then, Xanadu has become more tourist-friendly, albeit on a modest scale. How do you get there?
First, fly to Beijing. From there, take the train north to the city of Zhangjiakou. Since it is a high-speed train, the journey takes less than an hour. Next, hire a car and driver to take you out onto the Mongolian grasslands expect a three-to-four-hour drive. A bus is also an option, though it is more of a hassle. Once you finally arrive, you will be greeted by a large sign: Site of Xanadu.
Once inside the site, the distances are vast. You will be driven around in small electric golf carts between earthen ramparts, palace ruins, and the accompanying museum. For those who cannot make the journey, I highly recommend Marco Polo’s own account, as well as my travelogue. And, of course, one must not forget Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous 1797 poem:
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;
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
In his twilight years, Kublai Khan became ill and obese, passing away in 1294. Two years before his death, Marco Polo finally received the Emperor’s permission to return to his beloved Venice. His father and uncle joined him, and this time they traveled halfway around the world by ship. As Marco Polo writes at the very end of his book:
“Thanks be to God. Amen. Amen.”