In 1797, the English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote his well-known poem Kubla Khan, which was inspired by a dream he had after a reading from a book that took The Travels of Marco Polo as its source on Xanadu. Published in 1816, the poem inspired many in European and American with a yearning to visit the city.
Webster's New World College Dictionary defines the word "Xanadu" as referring to "any luxurious or exotic mansion, estate, etc".
The Site of Xanadu started on its journey toward being named a World Heritage site in 1996.
"As this had to do with the first steppe city to be nominated on the Inner Mongolian Plateau, we couldn't refer to past experiences," said Qiqige, deputy-director of the Xanadu World Heritage Nomination Team. "Our team had to forge its own path."
Various steps have been taken to prepare the site to receive its recently bestowed honor.
Regulations have been enacted to ensure it is protected legally.
Electrical equipment within the nominated property area has been buried to ensure the site's original appearance is maintained.
A meteorology observatory station has been built next to the site to monitor environmental changes. Various security measures have been adopted. And the team has established the Xanadu Site Museum to preserve cultural relics excavated from the ruins.
"All the signs within the site are written in Mongolian, Chinese and English," said Gao Hua, director of the Zhenglan Banner Administrative Bureau of Xanadu Site.
More archaeological excavations are also under way at the site. Visitors can now go to places where such work has already taken place, to the Mingde Gate, Yutian Gate, Da'an Pavilion and Muqing Pavilion.
"Work-in-progress archaeological works are also a special feature for visitors," Tala said, adding that the archaeological crews only work from June to early October, when the weather tends to be good.
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