Eastern Qing Tombs

Introducing Eastern Qing Tombs

The area of the Eastern Qing Tombs (Qīng Dōng Líng; admission Y55; 8am-5pm), 125km northeast of Běijīng, could be called Death Valley, housing as it does five emperors, 14 empresses and 136 imperial consorts. In the mountains ringing the valley are buried princes, dukes, imperial nurses and others.

A spirit way is a principle feature here, as at the Ming tombs. The emperors buried here are: Qianlong (Yù Líng), Kangxi (Jǐng Líng), Shunzhi (Xiào Líng), Xianfeng (Dìng Líng) and Tongzhi (Huì Líng). Emperor Qianlong (1711–99) started preparations when he was 30, and by the time he was 88 he had used up 90 tonnes of his silver. His resting place covers half a square kilometre. Some of the beamless stone chambers are decorated with Tibetan and Sanskrit sutras, and the doors bear bas-relief Bodhisattvas. All the emperors’ tombs are open to visitors apart from Huì Líng’s.

Empress Dowager Cixi also got a head start. Her tomb, Dìng Dōng Líng, was completed some three decades before her death and also underwent considerable restoration before she was finally laid to rest. It lies alongside the tomb of Empress Cian. The phoenix (symbol of the empress) appears above that of the dragon (the emperor’s symbol) in the artwork at the front of Cixi’s tomb – not side by side as on other tombs. Cixi’s and Qianlong’s tombs were plundered in the 1920s.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009