Duolun

Duolun, town, southeast-central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, northern China. It is situated close to the border of Hebei province. Until 1950 the town was in the former Chahar province.

Historically, Duolun was an important town. It was the site of Shangdu (the Xanadu of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poetic fragment “Kubla Khan”) under the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), 15 miles (25 km) northwest of the present-day town. It was founded by the Mongolian leader Kublai Khan in 1256 and became the summer capital of the Mongol emperors of China, known as the “city of 108 temples.” Excavations have revealed that the site comprised a walled inner city, where the emperor lived and worked, surrounded by an outer city containing official buildings and temples, while on the west and north a third wall enclosed the commercial and residential quarters. The city was sacked and burned in the Red Turban Muslim Rebellion in 1358 and again in 1363. In 1368 the Chinese Ming armies took the area. Duolun, however, remained an important symbolic site for the Mongols, and the Chinese Qing (Manchu) emperors encouraged its development as a religious centre. Under the Manchus an enormous lamasery was founded there in 1694, which at one time housed more than 3,000 monks. The Mongols flocked to the temples; many Chinese merchants arrived in the locality to trade with them; and Duolun became one of the major collecting points along the Inner Mongolian border.

After 1949 a highway was constructed linking the city with Kalgan (Zhangjiakou) in Hebei province to the southwest and Chifeng in Inner Mongolia to the east. The highway stimulated development, and many Chinese farmers settled in the vicinity. A highway from Duolun to Fengning (Hebei province) was completed in the mid-1990s and was further connected with highways to the northern suburbs of Beijing, which helped to stimulate the local tourist trade. Duolun remains an important collecting centre for pastoral products. Some small-scale industries—such as the manufacture of agricultural machinery and building materials, coal mining, and the processing of animal products—have been established. Pop. (2000 est.) 30,461.