Yuan Dynasty

State · 1294–1374 CE · at its largest around 1352 CE

Kublai Khan's Mongol court at Dadu drew Persian astronomers, Tibetan lamas, Italian merchants like Marco Polo and Muslim administrators into China. Paper money circulated widely, the Grand Canal was extended to the capital, and Chinese theater flourished as zaju drama.

On its lands while it lasted

Imperial examination system (605–1905 CE): The Sui formalised civil service examinations for selecting officials, a system that lasted until its abolition in 1905.
Hanlin Academy (738–1911 CE): Emperor Xuanzong of Tang founded the Hanlin Academy in Chang’an as a body of scholars who drafted imperial documents. Under later dynasties it became an elite institution of top examination graduates, lasting until 1911.
Goryeo (918–1392 CE): Dynasty founded by Wang Geon with its capital at Kaesong; the name Korea derives from it.
Tea Horse Road (c. 1000–1950 CE): Mountain trails over which porters and mule caravans carried brick tea from Sichuan and Yunnan to Tibet, exchanged for Tibetan horses, for roughly a thousand years.
Kamakura shogunate (1192–1333 CE): First military government of Japan, based at Kamakura.
Xanadu (c. 1206–1439 CE): Capital of Mongol Empire (1206–1293), Northern Yuan (1375–1439).
Kublai Khan (1215 CE – 1294 CE): Grandson of Genghis Khan who founded the Yuan dynasty and completed the Mongol conquest of China.
Karakorum (c. 1220–1388 CE): Capital of the Mongol Empire, walled under Ögedei Khan in 1235; destroyed by Ming forces in 1388.
Yuan dynasty (1271–1368 CE): Kublai Khan proclaimed the Yuan dynasty, the first time all of China was ruled by a non-Han dynasty.
Khanbaliq (c. 1271–1368 CE): Capital of Mongol Empire (1271–1293), Yuan Dynasty (1294–1368).
Hongwu Emperor (1328 CE – 1398 CE): Zhu Yuanzhang, a former peasant and monk, founded the Ming dynasty and ruled with great centralised authority.
Lan Xang (1353–1707 CE): Lao kingdom founded by Fa Ngum in 1353, with its early capital at Luang Prabang; it split into rival kingdoms from 1707.
Yongle Emperor (1360 CE – 1424 CE): Third Ming emperor, who moved the capital to Beijing and sponsored large naval expeditions and the Yongle Encyclopedia.
Luang Prabang (c. 1363 CE): Capital of Lan Xang (1363–1560), Kingdom of Laos (1956–1975).
Ming dynasty (1368–1644 CE): Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed the Ming dynasty at Nanjing and drove the Mongols from China.