Xanadu, the ruins of the first capital of Kublai Khan’s empire, in China’s northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.
The move was supported unanimously at the 36th World Heritage Committee meeting in Russia’s St. Petersburg on Friday. Xanadu is the 30th world heritage site in China. It is also the first site in Inner Mongolia. The city, known as Xanadu in Marco Polo’s Travel Notes, was built during the 13th and 14th centuries of China’s Yuan Dynasty. The layout of the city demonstrates the merger of Mongolian and Han cultures.