Yuan Dadu

Type Object Region China Time 1267–1368

Yuan Dadu (Khanbaliq) was the great Mongol Empire capital built by Kublai Khan in the mid-to-late thirteenth century at the site of modern Beijing, c…

Timeline

1267–1274Site of Yuan Dadu · North ChinaKublai Khan ordered Liu Bingzhong and others to oversee the building of a new capital northeast of Yanjing, planning the imperial city, imperial enclosure, and outer city according to the Rites of Zhou capital system, and dredging the Tonghui Canal to bring supplies northward from the Grand Canal.
1274–1310Yuan Dadu · North ChinaDadu as the Yuan imperial capital brought together postal relay stations, maritime trade, and the tributary system; Central Asian and Chinese merchants, envoys, and religious communities coexisted within the city, and as late as the early fourteenth century it remained a political and economic hub linking Eurasia.
1350–1368Yuan Dadu · North ChinaThe Red Turban Rebellion and fiscal crisis weakened Dadu's defenses; in 1368 Ming forces entered the city, Emperor Shun of Yuan moved north to Shangdu, and the history of Khanbaliq as the Yuan capital ended; the site was later inherited and transformed as Ming Beijing.

Sources

元史·地理志
The Cambridge History of China, Volume 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907–1368 — Denis Twitchett; Herbert Franke (1994)