China Archaeological

The foundation of the Yuan Dynasty city, two to three meters above the ground, and the specially styled rammed corner terraces in the inside city have provided evidence to identify the city structure and disposition, and the building layout. The survey shows that there were four gates in the inside city, three gates in the intermediate city, a waterway, and in the best preserved location of the outer city, remains of the ruined rammed terraces of a city wall about one meter high can be seen. In the three cities, ruins of buildings were also found, including the foundations of a group of I-patterned principal palace constructions with distinct central axial alignment and symmetric distribution of buildings. The unearthed high quality building materials and components include corner designs of exquisitely carved white marble heads (without horns) of dragons, glazed beasts and a relief dragon design on the tile-ends.

The discovery provides new and substantial evidence for the study of the capital of the Yuan Dynasty.