More than 700 years ago, Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), ordered the construction of a new capital. Around Qionghua Island, now part of Beijing's Beihai Park, a vast imperial city took shape, laying the foundations for Beijing's emergence as the political center of a unified China.
Known as Yuan Dadu, the city existed for less than a century, but its influence on Beijing's urban development endured. Today, traces of the Yuan capital can still be found in the city's historic hutong alleys and landmarks, from Beihai Park and the White Pagoda at Miaoying Temple to the Tonghui River.
Now, the story of how the city was built and of the people whose lives unfolded within its walls is heading to the stage.
The National Centre for the Performing Arts will present its original historical drama Dadu of the Yuan Dynasty from Dec 10 to 19, with no performance on Dec 14. The production is the second installment in the NCPA's series, which traces Beijing's evolution through pivotal moments in its history.
The trilogy opened with Zhongdu of the Jin Dynasty in December 2025, exploring how Beijing became the capital of the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) in 1153, when the ruling court moved its seat to the city and renamed it Zhongdu. The third installment is scheduled to complete the series in 2027.
Both productions were written by Xiong Zhaozheng, a prominent author whose four-volume novel Zhang Juzheng won the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2005. For the new play, Xiong turns his attention to a city that, in his view, belonged not only to its rulers but also to the people who made it their home.
Rather than simply reconstructing an ancient capital, the production explores how a city emerges from political ambition and architectural planning, and how its identity is shaped by the lives of its inhabitants.
"We are not staging this play simply to re-create a city," says Zhang Yao, vice-president of the NCPA and the production's chief producer. "We want audiences to see how a capital moves from a blueprint on paper to an ordered space on the ground, and how the work of building a city eventually becomes part of its cultural identity."
The production also asks what the builders and guardians of Yuan Dadu left behind for people today, Zhang Yao adds.
That question has guided a creative process rooted in historical research. Before rehearsals began, the team traveled to sites in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Xingtai in Hebei province and Zhengzhou in Henan province, as well as Beijing and Shanghai. They consulted specialists in Yuan Dynasty history, archaeology, architecture and literature, and visited memorial halls dedicated to figures who helped shape the capital.
Among their destinations was the archaeological site of Yuan Shangdu, the earlier summer capital associated with Kublai Khan in present-day Inner Mongolia.
"Standing on the vast grasslands at Yuan Shangdu, where Kublai Khan's story took root, you can almost hear echoes from deep in history and sense the grand ambition behind his decision to build a capital," says director Wang Rui, who also directed the trilogy's first installment. "The experience deeply moved and inspired me."
The team also visited memorial halls dedicated to Liu Bingzhong, the scholar and adviser closely involved in planning Yuan Dadu, and Guo Shoujing, the astronomer, mathematician and hydraulic engineer whose work helped address the capital's water-management needs.
Historical advisers were brought in to help the production balance scholarly accuracy with theatrical expression.
Four historical figures form the narrative backbone of the play: Kublai Khan, the ruler who ordered the capital's construction; Liu Bingzhong, the planner who helped translate imperial ambition into an urban vision; Wen Tianxiang, the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) loyalist who resisted the Mongol conquest and became a symbol of patriotism; and Guan Hanqing, the celebrated Yuan Dynasty playwright whose works captured the struggles and emotions of ordinary people.
Through their intertwined stories, the drama moves between the calculations of the imperial court, the convictions of those who resisted the new regime and the everyday concerns of people living and working in the growing capital.
For Xiong, one of Yuan Dadu's defining characteristics was its capacity to bring people from different backgrounds together.
