Explanation of XANADU ????

Xanadu
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Coordinates: 42°21′35″N, 116°10′45″E
This article is about the summer capital of Kublai Khan's empire. For other uses, see Xanadu (disambiguation).
Xanadu, also Zanadu, Shangdu or Shang-tu (Chinese: 上都; Hanyu Pinyin: Shàngdū) was the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Mongol Empire, which covered much of Asia. The city was located in what is now called Inner Mongolia, 275 km north of Beijing, about 28 km northwest of the modern town of Duolun. The capital consisted of the square-shaped "Outer City" (2,200 metres square), "Inner City" (1,400 metres square), and the palace, where Kublai Khan stayed in summer. The palace was 550 metres square, 40% the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The most visible modern-day remnants are the earthen walls though there is also a (ground-level) circular brick platform in the centre of the inner enclosure.

The Mongolian Emperors of the Yuan Dynasty made very few changes to China, imbibing much of the Confucianist and Taoist philosophies, and remodelling their government on the native dynasties they had defeated. However, they opened up the empire to westerners, allowing travellers like Venetian explorer Marco Polo in 1275 to report the wonders of the Eastern capital to their fellow Europeans.

The reported splendour of Xanadu later inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge to write his great poem Kubla Khan and caused Xanadu to become a metaphor for opulence. Xanadu is remembered today largely thanks to this poem, which contains the following oft-quoted lines:

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.
Coleridge used artistic license with his poem, and few aspects of the description are in evidence at the actual site.


[edit] Xanadu in popular culture
Canadian rock band Rush has a song called "Xanadu" on the album A Farewell to Kings which incorporates lines of Coleridge's poem.
Italian metal band Stormlord has a song called "Xanadu" on the album At the Gates of Utopia which quotes the first segment of the poem.
Japanese gothic rock band Moi dix Mois has a song called "Xanadu" on their fourth album, Dixanadu.
Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John has a big hit called "Xanadu".
The song "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood is based on the Coleridge poem.
The 1980 musical film Xanadu is considered a cult classic.
It is the name of Charles Foster Kane's Mansion in the Classic Movie Citzen Kane 1941.
The British pop band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich had a massive hit record with "The Legend of Xanadu" in 1968; the track is of a Spanish style rather than a Mongolian.
The American TV show Veronica Mars uses the phrase "Go, shoo, return to Xanadu!" in the episode "Return of the Kane."
The NES game Faxanadu's title is a portmanteau of "Famicom" and "Xanadu."
In Heroes of Might and Magic II, the Xanadu was a map location the player could visit with heroes that had passed a certain level to gain primary skills.

Xanadu, also Zanadu, Shangdu or Shang-tu (Chinese: 上都; Hanyu Pinyin: Shàngdū) was the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Mongol Empire, which covered much of Asia. The city was located in what is now called Inner Mongolia,

it is not japanese

it's the english name of a place

or

Xanadu

Xan·a·du [ zánnə d ] (plural Xan·a·dus)

noun

Definition:

beautiful place: a beautiful idyllic place


[Mid-20th century. After the residence of Kublai Khan in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan (1816)]