Liao Upper Capital Ruins 辽上京遗址

About Liao Upper Capital Ruins

The site combined a northern imperial city with a southern settlement, and its surviving walls and gateways still reveal that division. The exposed remains are best understood after a museum visit: the Qian'de Gate area and palace foundations show the city's organisation even though the halls have disappeared. Follow the designated archaeological route rather than treating the enclosure as unrestricted open ground.

The site began as Longmei Palace (龙眉宫), built by the Liao founder Yelü Abaoji, who founded a city on its foundations in 918 under the name Huangdu, the first Liao capital. After defeating the state of Bohai, Abaoji returned in 926 and built the Tianzan Palace (天赞宫), whose three halls were used for monthly, festival and imperial memorial rites attended by officials from the Liao Eastern Capital. In 938 Huangdu was renamed Shangjing, with its seat called Linhuang, giving the name Shangjing Linhuangfu.

Jurchen forces under Wanyan Aguda (完颜阿骨打) captured the city in 1120, destroying its main buildings; it then served as the Jin dynasty's Beijing, or Northern Capital, from 1138 before being downgraded in 1150 and again in the early 1200s. Mongol forces destroyed the city in 1214, and it was never rebuilt; the land later passed to the Yuan official Xue Techan (薛特禅) and his descendants.

The ruins were rediscovered and identified in 1912 by the French Catholic missionary Min Xuanhua (闵宣化), and the site was listed as a Major National Historical and Cultural Site (全国重点文物保护单位) in 1961. Repeated archaeological excavations have recovered large numbers of coins and other artifacts, and in the 1980s archaeologists found numerous Han Chinese cremation burials of the Liao period near the city.

What to look for

• The imperial-city walls and Qian'de Gate remains.
• The palace-foundation area and the contrast between the northern and southern city layout.

Location & getting there

Getting to Liao Upper Capital Ruins

Approach the archaeological park beside Lindong Town in Bairin Left Banner; the Liao Shangjing Museum stands immediately west of the ruins.

• Start at the signed public park access and use the designated paths around excavated remains.