Together with

Table of Contents

• Introduction

• Analogy: Fancy Dinner Party

• Building Your Own Micro Empire

• Xanadu (Shangdu)

• Kublai Khan’s Life

• The 5-Point Criteria

Introduction

Welcome to Xanadu - Kublai Khan's summer refuge, a standalone marvel within the vast expanses of the Mongol Empire. Join us as we explore why Xanadu is not just a place of historical significance but a Micro Empire in its own right.

So at this point you're probably wondering what all the fuss is about. What is a Micro Empire, Larissa? And more importantly, does having a Micro Empire make you a Micro Emperor/Empress? The answer to the latter is yes, obviously. The former - I'm getting to it now but it requires a fresh glass of Iced Coffee (thank you Oaxaca, Mexico for your coffee beans) and yesterday's donut to bring my near insane analogies to life.

Okay, I'm back. Imagine you're hosting a fancy dinner party. You've got some people coming over, you want to impress them with your culinary skills, "Nah fam, no pizza tonight - we're having Chicken Fricassee with Gratin dauphinois!" (If you're ever in a decent French restaurant and see this on the menu - please do try it, you won't regret it).

Analogy: Fancy Dinner Party

But back to my amazing analogy, you've got this fancy dinner party to prepare for and you've got to make that trip to the local supermarket to get all your ingredients. You know this isn't your ordinary milk run, you have to get that good butter and all those boujee organic products. You're strategically selecting ingredients to create this amazing dinner where your pal, Larissa (aka me) can come hang out and regale you with tales of adventure from her recent time abroad.

Looking down into your shopping trolley, you see all your delicious ingredients - these are the components of your Micro Empire. The same way you picked out the veggies for your crispy roasted Broccolini with garlic and parmesan, all the herbs and spices for your Fricassee, the fresh cream and berries for your homemade Parfait, all of these choices reflect a different venture within your broader business portfolio in building your Micro Empire (and one step closer to World Domination).

Building Your Own Micro Empire

Building your own Micro Empire is kind of like taking on the chaos at your local supermarket. You have a modest budget and a scrap of paper (or you know, the Notes app on your phone) that contains list of everything you need - think of this as your skills, your passions and niche markets. The objective of your grocery adventure is to maximise the value of the items in your trolley (your portfolio) with an assortment of boujee ingredients (ventures) that with their powers combined will create a feast for the ages (aka a successful, diversified business).

Once you've paid for your groceries and you're headed home - you know the true hallmark of your 10/10 dinner (aka your Micro Empire) relies on how well you can combine those individual ingredients/components. Each item on that shopping list might be insignificant on its own, but together with your talented culinary skills, or the help of a really great YouTube tutorial, they create a delicious meal that is greater than the sum of its parts.

There's a bit more that goes into this analogy, but I really want to get to the meat and potatoes of this post and talk about Xanadu.

Xanadu (Shangdu)

Xanadu, not just a wildly popular movie and dance track of the 80s, but also the fabulous summer residence of Kublai Khan (1215–1294). Our boy Kublai was the grandson of this little known Founder and Leader of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan, maybe you've heard of him.

The Mongol Empire is certainly not known for its Micro-ish-ness at all, in fact it was probably the largest empire in history. Xanadu, however, holds its own in its Micro Empire-likeness.

Kublai Khan’s Life

The Reader's Digest version of events in Kublai Khan's life is that he continued to expand the Mongol Empire deep into Asia, completing the conquest of China as well. Have you seen the size of China on a map? That's a lot of conquering. Despite the vast territory he controlled, his smarts in adopting Chinese administrative practices helps him consolidate and centralise the functions of his territories. Kublai Khan made massive moves in the cultural and economic integration of the Mongol Empire. He is even the bloke responsible for moving the empire's capital to Beijing, allowing the city of Xanadu (now know as Shangdu, surprise!) to become an important administrative and cultural centre.

This is an extremely reductive summary of what is a complex yet powerful legacy. He is hailed as a leader who somehow was able to govern an extremely diverse and expansive empire - through a marriage of Mongolian military prowess and Chinese bureaucratic governance. A massive influence on the political and cultural landscape of Asia, if you ever want to read about it.

They are in Xanadu (with every breath you drift awayyyyy) - sending some big love to Olivia Newton John and ELO. Okay, Xanadu, now known as Shangdu - firm on my bucket list of places to visit, beloved by Marco Polo who described it as a place of immense wealth and grandeur (not bad) and immortalised in poetry by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (the guy who literally founded Romanticism movement in England, also not bad) who also portrayed Xanadu as a place of exotic beauty and splendour.

The 5-Point Criteria

I'm judging Xanadu's for Micro Empire status based on the following criteria that I literally just made up in my head:

1. Does Caesar go here? (Global recognition and Autonomy) A reference to a funny movie and a funnier story I have from a visit to Las Vegas last year, but this is essentially a check to see if the city was known to people all over the world.

2. Was it in charge of things? (Economic and Political Influence) Were they in charge of their own money and rules, did they have a say in what happened around it?

3. Was it pretty? (Architectural and Environment Marvel) Pretty is a fairly loose term, but what I really mean is - did it have amazing buildings or fancy gardens that contributed to the city's beauty and functionality?

4. Was it considered prime real estate? (Strategic Location) Is it located in a top tier location that helped it earn big bucks or was significant in establishing trade?

5. And finally, did they do stuff? (Cultural and Historical Significance) Did they do interesting things, like being super smart, making beautiful art, having cool buildings.

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