Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty, referred to as Dadu for short, is the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, which means "the residence of Khan". Planned and built by Liu, a scientist in Yuan Dynasty, it was the capital of Yuan Dynasty from Kublai Khan to the fourth year of Yuan Dynasty (1267) and the twenty-eighth year (1368).
Metropolitan New Town is rectangular in plan, with a circumference of 28.6 kilometers and an area of about 50 square kilometers, which is equivalent to three-fifths of the area of Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty. The roads in the Yuan Dynasty were well planned with clear latitude and longitude. Archaeological excavations have confirmed that the width of the main street on the central axis of most cities is 28 meters, the width of other main streets is 25 meters, the width of small streets is half of that of main streets, and the width of fire lanes (hutongs) is roughly half of that of small streets. The city walls were rammed with mud and covered with reed curtains. Because of the square outline of the city and the straight and regular streets, the urban pattern is particularly spectacular.
On the west side of the central pavilion, there are the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, which are the time telling agencies of the whole city. To the west of the Bell and Drum Tower is Jishuitan, which is the end of water transportation in Yuan Dynasty and the most prosperous business district in the city. There are rice market, market, satin market, fur hat market, gold and silver jewelry market, iron market, goose and duck market, as well as gardens and pavilions such as Wanghuting and Wanchun Garden.
The roads in the Yuan Dynasty were all dirt roads. When the city was built, open ditches were set on both sides of the main road of the city, which were made of stone. After the Ming Dynasty, many open ditches were covered and turned into underground ditches.
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The most striking feature of the new town planning in Yuan Dynasty is to determine the urban pattern with the water surface as the center, which may be related to the traditional habit and deep consciousness of Mongolian nomads "living on water plants".
Because the palace is surrounded by water, the south side of the new city is limited by the old city, and most of the urban areas have to move northward. The commercial city of Yuandadu New Town is scattered in the urban area around the imperial city and the residential area at the gate of the city. Among them, Dongcheng District is the center of official residence and aristocratic residence, and there are many commercial markets, such as Dongcheng, Shi Jiao City, Wenji City, Zhizha City and Boot City. The nature of the commercial market clearly reflects the needs of officials.
North City opened Tonghui River in Guo Shoujing, making Haizi (Jishuitan) the end of the North-South Grand Canal and forming a prosperous business district along the coast. The diagonal street on the north shore of Haizi is even more lively, where all kinds of KTV pubs and daily necessities gather, such as rice market, bazaar, hat market, silk and satin market, fur hat market, gold and silver jewelry market, iron market, goose and duck market, etc. Bell Tower Street in the north is also very lively. What is particularly striking is that there is also the largest "poor city" in the city near the Drum Tower, which should be a market for the urban poor to sell their labor.
There are camel market, sheep market, bull market, horse market and mule market in Xicheng District, where livestock trading is concentrated and the residents' level is lower than that in Dongcheng District. Chengnan District is the old city of Jinzhongdu, including Chengnan City, Steamed Cake City and Poor Seoul, as well as the automobile market, fruit market, vegetable market, grass market and poor Seoul in the first three doors of the new city. Because the first three doors are the intersection of land and water transportation, commercial cities and residents gather together, forming a bustling area where the urban-rural junction and the intersection of old and new cities meet.
It can be seen that the distribution of commercial cities and residential areas in Yuan Dynasty was not only restricted by urban planning, but also influenced spontaneously by urban life and external traffic. Another pioneering work in the construction of metropolis in Yuan Dynasty was to set up a tall bell tower and drum tower in the center of the city as the time-telling agency of the whole city. In ancient China, drums were always used to tell the time with inner doors, towers, watchtowers or towers, but there was no precedent to build a bell tower and drum tower separately in the city center, and to tell the time with copper pots dripping water and drum horns.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Yuandadu