Yingchang


Yingchang was one of the important cities in the Yuan dynasty. It was situated on Lake Taal Nor in modern Heshigten Banner, Inner Mongolia.
The city of Yingchang was built by the Qongirat Mongols in 1271, the same year that Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty. The city was the administrative seat of the Mongol prince of Lu. This square-walled city incorporated Chinese-like symmetry, wide axial streets from the gates led to an administrative compound in the center north area, emulating the Tang style.
Shortly after Toghan Temur, the last Yuan emperor lost Dadu and Shangdu to the Ming dynasty in 1368 and 1369 respectively, the Yuan remnants established their capital at Yingchang city. After the death of Toghan Temur in this city in 1370, the Ming armies managed to capture the town of Yingchang, the last major city in Chinese borderlands still in the hands of Mongols in the same year, and thus brought to an end formal Mongol rule in China. Biligtü Khan Ayushiridara fled to Mongolia soon afterwards, thereby making Karakorum the capital city of the Mongols again.
The Mongols once took back Yingchang in 1374, but the Ming recaptured the city in 1380.