Beijing Yuan Dynasty History (1215 AD)

The Jin Dynasty lasted no more than 60 years，and then the Mongolians intruded．In the early 1 3 th century，the Mongolians in the north gathered strength rapidly．In 1 2 1 5 a cavalry force under Genghis Khan broke through the Nankou Pass，south of the Great Wall and captured Zhongdu where there was a fierce fighting with the J in troops，and the magnificent city was nearly razed tO the ground．At that time Zhongdu of J in was only the capital of half of China in the north，while the Southern Song
was in the south．In order tO bring all China under control，Kublai Khan，the grandson of Genghis khan，came down from Mongolia to Zhongdu in 1 260．  It was here that Kublai established the Yuan Dynasty in 1 2 7 1．After the defeat of the Southern Song，he brought north and south China under contr01．In 1 272 Kublai Khan moved the capital from the north to Zhongdu and made it as his capital，which was called Khanbaliq(Khan’S City)and known as Dadu in Chinese(the Great Capital)for the newly founded Yuan Dynasty．After that Dadu replaced the position of ancient capitals of Chang’an，Louyang and Kaifeng．Ever since then Dadu became the National Capital of unified China and its position of a national capital maintained though some minor changes under different names in
different dynasties down to the present day with only minor interruptions．
Kublai Khan settled down and decided to abandon the old Jin City and made the center of Dadu in the northern suburbs outside the Jin city，roughly where Beihai Park stands today．
The reason was that the old Jin City was so dilapidated after war and it was very hard to rebuild；the city was lack of water supply with the increasing population；furthermore，the new emperor didn’t want to 1ive in the old Dynasty City．So the extensive reconstruction of Dadu was soon carried out according to a comprehensive plan．  Since Daninggong(Palace of Great
Tranquility)．which was in the northeast suburbs outside the Jin capital，(somewhere located on the present site of Beihai Park) was the only palace survived from the war，so Kuhblai Khan used it as the center of his new capital．The Imperial Palace was built around the lakes where Zhonghai(Central Lake)and Beihai (North Lake)stand today．The imperial palace consisted of three grouPs of palaces．The palaces on the east bank were Danei (Great Within)where the Yuan Emperor gave his audience and
had his residence．The palaces on the west banks of the lake were the residences of the crown prince and the empress dowager．All the palace roofs were resplendent with brightly colored glazed tiles．The terraces in front of each palace hall were Daved with carved white marble ramp and the whole palace was 1uxury，splendid and lavishly decorated．The wall surrounding the Dadu City had three gates in the east，west and south，with only two gates in the north．The ruins of the Yuan northern wall can still be seen today beyond Deshengmen，an earthen mound rather grandly known as the “Earthen Wall”．The layout of the Dadu City still followed the former imperim rulers with the Front Court for official routines
and the Market at the rear，while the Supreme Ancestral Temple on the left and the Altar of Land and Grain on the right．A passage of 24 steps in width was called a broad street，1 2 steps wide was a narrow road and a passage of 6 steps in width was called Hutony．The broad principle from north to south，straight street ran mostly on intersected by Hutong(Lanes)running east to west．No wonder the great Italian traveler Marco Polo(1254—1324)described the city of Beijing in his book of travels”：the street was so broad and straight that someone standing at one end of the road could see the other end．With the patterned street and lanes，the whole city looked so beautiful．Just like a chessboard．People in the west were astonished to
learn that there was a wonderland far in the east，so rich and prosperous that no other city in the world could rival it at the time．Some ruins of the city wall still remain todav．
Because of the limited water supply in Dadu，Kublai commissioned the famous hydraulic expert Gou Shouj ing to s01ve this problem．Gou brought the Springs of Shenshan Mountain in Changping，north of Beijing to the south and then brought the water from the Jade Spring Hill in the Western Hills into the Kunming Lake and then to the lake in the city at Jishuitan
(Water Accumulating P001)．He also built the Tong Hui Canal linking
Tongzhou，the terminal of the Grand Canal with Jishuitan·It formed a waterway from north Shenshan to the south of Jade Spring Hill and then to the city Jishuitan and to the east Tongzhou Grand Canal．The sluice gates were also built along the way from Tongzhou Grand Canal to the capital citv in order to make the balance of the water level because the citv is much higher than Tongzhou．This greatly improved the water supply in the Yuan Dynasty．Tonghui extension enabled the canal cargoes hom the south to enter the city Dadu．  After that the area  between Jishuitan and the Drum Tower  became the commercial center of the Beijing city．
The prosperous Beijing city of Dadu attracted many merchants and foreign traders’  and the frequent contacts between Yuan China and foreign countries promoted the growth of the economic and the cultural exchanges·The Yuan rulers were probably much more open to the outside than the rulers in the Ming and Qing or other dynasties·A few foreigners were even appointed officials in the  Yuan imperial court．The famous Italian traveler Marco Polo came to China with his father and uncle in November 1271 and received  special  favor and  was appointed  as  a  consultant official of the Yuan Empire by Kublai Khan．Later he descr．bed
in his book of“Travels”：“On the banks of a great river，there stood an ancient city of great size and splendor which was named Khanbaliq，  or Khan’s city”．The Temple of White Pagoda (Baitasi)still standing in Beijing today was built in 1271，with the help of a Nepalese artist named Arnico．Today we still can see some Yuan construction—buildings in Beijing．

For instance：
Huguosi,  Bailinsi，  Baiyunguan，  Chenghuangmiao，  Guozij ian。
Kongmiao，Sitiantai，etc．