Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum

The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum stands on the southern slope of Purple Mountain in the Zhongshan Scenic Area of Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu. It is the tomb of Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), founder of the Republic of China and first provisional president in 1912. Sun died in Beijing in March 1925 and expressed a wish to be buried in Nanjing. The architect Lu Yanzhi won a design competition in 1925, and construction ran from 1926 to 1929, with Sun's body being interred with a state ceremony in June 1929. Lu himself died in 1929 before its completion. The mausoleum is laid out on an axis of 392 stone steps in eight flights rising about 70 m, with a granite paved approach, a memorial archway, a tomb gate with the inscription of the nationalist ideal, a stele pavilion and a sacrificial hall. Inside the hall is a white marble seated statue of Sun; behind it a circular chamber holds a recumbent marble figure over the burial vault. The building's blue glazed roof tiles and white granite walls form a deliberate visual echo of the Nationalist flag's colours, and the design merges traditional Chinese timber-frame forms with Western monumental concrete and stone construction, an approach characteristic of Republican-era architecture. Interpretation is symbolic and processional rather than museum-like, though exhibits related to Sun's life and the building's history are found in adjoining buildings. The site was damaged during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and has since been repaired and repainted, with continual maintenance of the stone and glazed tiles. It remains a place of national commemoration, attracting visitors from mainland China, Taiwan and overseas, and sits alongside Ming Xiaoling and Linggu Temple within the same scenic zone. Entry is free but requires advance reservation with a passport for foreign visitors; a full visit takes around two hours.