Sculpture of lion with three cubs from Dadu, discovered underneath the Ming era city wall, now on display in the Beijing Stone Carving Museum
Courtesy: Shizhao, Wikipedia
Khanbaliq or Dadu refers to a city which is the core of Beijing. Dadu or Ta-Tu (大都, pinyin: Dàdū, Wade-Giles: Ta-tu), means "great capital" or "grand capital" in Chinese, the name for the capital of the Yuan Dynasty founded by Kublai Khan in China, and was called Daidu by the Mongols, which was a transliteration directly from the Chinese. It is known as Khanbaliq (汗八里), also spelled as Khanbalikh in Turkic languages, meaning "Great residence of the Khan", and Marco Polo wrote of it as Cambaluc.
On Khanbalik and other Chinese Towns, see please:
A possible role of sunrise/sunset azimuth in the planning of ancient Chinese towns by A.C. Sparavigna,
PORTO POLITO, http://porto.polito.it/2519296/
