TO-LUN

Mongolian Dolon Nor, or Doloon Nuur, Pinyin Duolun, or Dolonnur town in the Inner Mongolian autonomous ch' (region), China. Until 1952 the town was in the former Chahar province. Historically important as the site of Shang-tu (the Xanadu of Samuel Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan), it was founded by 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 containing official buildings, surrounded by an outer wall, while on the west and north a third wall enclosed a large park. The city was sacked and burned in the Red Turban Muslim Rebellion in 1358 and again in 1363. In 1369 the Chinese Ming armies took the area. To-lun, however, remained an important symbolic site for the Mongols, and the Chinese 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 To-lun became one of the major collecting points along the Inner Mongolian border. After 1949 a highway was constructed linking the city with Kalgan (Chang-chia-k'ou) in Hopeh province to the southwest and Ch'ih-feng in Inner Mongolia to the east. The highway stimulated development, and many Chinese farmers settled in the vicinity, pressing the pastoral Mongols (who now constitute a minority in the region) further north. To-lun remains an important collecting centre for pastoral products. Pop. (mid-1980s est.) 10,00050,000.