Yellow Emperor Mausoleum

Yellow Emperor Mausoleum is located on the top of the Qiaoshan Mountain in the northern suburbs of Huangling County, Shaanxi Province. It is the mausoleum of Emperor Yellow Xuan Yuan, the primogenitor of Chinese nation. Qiaoshan Mountain is a famous tourist attraction with picturesque scenery.

Surrounded by brooks, the evergreen Qiaoshan Mountain is endowed with towering age-old cypresses and grazioso environment. Yellow Emperor Mausoleum is situated right in the middle of mountaintop of the Qiaoshan Mountain, with a wide road stretching from the mountain foot to the mountaintop. On the mountaintop stands a “Dismounting Rock”, reading “Civil and military officials should dismount here”. Worshipers in ancient times had to dismount in the place and walk to the mausoleum. There is an over 10m-high hugelboden with a stele reading “Immortal Dais of Emperor Wu in the Han Dynasty” in left front of the “Dismounting Rock” . Legend has it that the hugelboden was built by Liu Che, Emperor Wu in the Han Dynasty on his way from Boreas land shire for the commemoration of Yellow Emperor. On north of the hugelboden is Yellow Emperor Mausoleum which is 20-30m away from the former. Being 3.6 meters in height and with a perimeter of 48 meters, Yellow Emperor Mausoleum has an over one meter-high tracery wall built around it. A great stele carved with “Qiaoshan Dragon Drive” stands in front of the mausoleum. According to legends, it is from the very place that Yellow Emperor rode a dragon rising to the heaven.

At the foot of the Qiaoshan Mountain stands Xuanyuan Temple which was built in the Han Dynasty, with its magnificent gate facing south. In the temple is a main temple hall, with a tablet written with “Primal Humanist Ancestor” hung on the top pf the gate and a gigantic memorial tablet of Yellow Emperor placed in the middle of it. In the temple courtyard stands a “Cypress Planted by Yellow Emperor”, which is said to be planted personally by Yellow Emperor over 4000 years ago. Being 19 meters tall and 10meter in circumference at the bottom, the cypress was awarded the fame of “Father of the World’s Cypresses”. There is also a stele-holding pavilion in the temple, containing around 50 steles carved with sacrificial writings of emperors of past dynasties and records of mausoleum and temple repairs in the past.

Yellow Emperor Mausoleum is one of the first listed as the Cultural Relics of National Importance under the Protection of the State. Known as “”The First Mausoleum in the World”, it has served as the symbol of Chinese civilization.