Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum

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East China (华东) » Jiangsu (江苏) » Nanjing (南京) » Sun-Yat-sen Mausoleum (Zhongshan Ling, 中山陵)

Sun-Yat-sen Mausoleum (Zhongshan Ling, 中山陵)
Address:	Nanjing, Jiangsu
Phone:	025-84431991、84437186
Web site:	http://www.zschina.org
Price Range:	80RMB ~ 80RMB
Level:	AAAAA
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[edit] Description

Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum is the tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the great forerunner of democratic revolution of China. Dr. Sun died of liver cancer in Beijing on March 12, 1925.

The mausoleum is located at the southern foot of Zhongshan Mountain, and to the east of the Ming tomb in the same area. The mausoleum covers a total area of 133 hectares of the mountain slope. The main building of the mausoleum, the memorial hall, is on the top of a hill, and covers an area of 20 acres.

[edit] History

The construction of the mausoleum started in January of 1926 and was finished in spring of 1929. On June 1, 1929, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's coffin was moved from Beijing and interred at the mausoleum.

The mausoleum was designed by Lu Yanzhi, an outstanding Chinese architect. The magnificent yet tranquil mausoleum blends the styles of traditional imperial tombs and modern architecture. The plane of entire mausoleum resembles an alarm bell. At the entrance is the glazed-blue-tile-covered Memorial Archway, from which one goes through a gently sloping long deity path to the mausoleum gate. The gate is 16 meters high and 27 meters wide, and is inscribed with four Chinese characters written by Dr. Sun, "Tian Xia Wei Gong" which means "The world belongs to everyone". The stairway from the mausoleum gate to the tomb-chamber has 393 steps and 10 large stone-tablet pavilions, and is 700 meters long with a 70-meter difference in height. The archway, the tomb-path, the mausoleum gate, the tablet-pavilion, the sacrificial hall and the tomb-chamber are all vertically situated on one another and are inline with the same axis. Main buildings of the mausoleum were built with solid granites and Jinshan stones from Fujian, Beijing, Suzhou, Qingdao and Hong Kong. The top of the 30-meter-long, 25-meter-wide and 29-meter-high sacrificial hall are covered with glazed blue tiles. In the middle of the memorial hall is a statue of Sun-Yat-sen in a seated position. His general program for the reconstruction of the nation is engraved on black marble on the walls.