Kublai wanted a capital city that was centrally located in China, but not too far from his homeland of Mongolia, which he still ruled as khan. Kublai's advisers considered many options but finally settled on the site of the very same city that Kublai's grandfather had burned to the ground around the time of Kublai's birth: Zhondu. Under the Yuan, the city would be called Dadu.
When Kublai's advisers chose the site of Dadu—today’s Beijing—they did not consider how little fresh water was available there. Beijing is, in fact, the only major city in China that is not located near a natural water source. What the Yuan Dynasty needed was a hydraulic engineer, someone who could design a system to transport water to the city. An astronomer named Guo Shoujing would figure out a way to get water to the city, and then solve the problem of getting grain to Dadu via the ancient Grand Canal, China's chief artificial waterway. Learn how Guo Shoujing solved both watery problems by reading each question below, then clicking on it.
When Kublai's advisers chose the site of Dadu—today’s Beijing—they did not consider how little fresh water was available there. Beijing is, in fact, the only major city in China that is not located near a natural water source. What the Yuan Dynasty needed was a hydraulic engineer, someone who could design a system to transport water to the city. An astronomer named Guo Shoujing would figure out a way to get water to the city, and then solve the problem of getting grain to Dadu via the ancient Grand Canal, China's chief artificial waterway. Learn how Guo Shoujing solved both watery problems by reading each question below, then clicking on it.
Question
Dadu was built according to Kublai Khan’s instructions: a perfect square, near the ruins of Zhondu. Construction took seven years. When the city was completed in 1274, it attracted a huge population. How many people lived in the new Yuan capital?
Half a million people lived there—more than twice the population of Paris, the largest city in Europe at that time.
Question
The Italian explorer and chronicler Marco Polo said he visited Dadu and the emperor’s palace there. He claimed the great hall of the palace could serve 6,000 men. So many people needed water, and plenty of it. But Dadu was not built near a water source. Who would solve this problem?
Gua Shoujing was an astronomer with experience in hydraulic engineering. The Yuan emperor Kublai Khan ordered him to find water for the city, and he did.
Question
How did Gua Shoujing solve the water problem for Dadu?
He saw that there were streams north of the city. He dug new channels for these streams so that they traveled over 50 miles to Dadu and combined there to form artificial lakes and an enormous reservoir about 2 miles square.
Question
Now Dadu had water. But without agriculture, how could the city feed itself?
Again the answer was shifting water. Guo Shouzing extended the ancient Grand Canal, built in the 7th century under the Tang, and changed its course so that it traveled from the grain fields of the South straight to Dadu. At about 2,000 miles long, the Grand Canal was—and still is—the longest canal in the world, and it brought the grain the capital needed.
Question
What two water storage sites did Guo create near the city of Beijing?
He built a series of artificial lakes, but these were only used for the emperor's pleasure until 1912. He also built a huge reservoir north of Beijing to hold the city's water.
