Qiaoling Mausoleum 桥陵

About Qiaoling Mausoleum

A China News Service report records that Li Dan was the eighth son of Emperor Gaozong and the youngest of the four sons born to Wu Zetian, and that his tomb lies at Anwang village in Potou town about 15 kilometres north-west of Pucheng county town. It describes the tomb as taking Feng Mountain as its mound, with a burial chamber hollowed out inside the hill and a wall built around the perimeter, and records that it is a national key cultural relic protection unit. The report says the tomb's construction and stone carving represent the high Tang, and that work on protecting and displaying the remains of the Vermilion Bird gate began in September 2010 as part of the tomb's second conservation phase, restoring the gate's base, its rammed-earth layers and part of the tomb wall. That gate, also called the southern spirit gate, was the first main gate into the inner city, and its base is a rectangle 31.5 metres east to west and 12 metres north to south.

The stone figures are what visitors come for. A China.org.cn item credited to the Western Network records that the tomb stands in the western hills of Pucheng county town, that it is a national key cultural relic protection unit, and that visiting groups come to see the Tang tomb carvings and inscriptions, among them a stone xiezhi. It describes a guide taking a group through the carvings one by one, from the figures themselves and the historical meaning attached to each, through their later damage and their present protection, to plans for their future.

The two cited pages place the tomb slightly differently, in the western hills of the county town in one and at Anwang village in Potou town about 15 kilometres north-west of it in the other, and neither states which parts of the tomb area a visitor can enter.

What to look for

• The stone xiezhi that the China.org.cn item names among the tomb's carvings.
• The tomb's stone figures and inscriptions, which the same item describes a guide taking a visiting group through one by one.
• The base of the Vermilion Bird gate, which the China News Service report gives as 31.5 metres east to west and 12 metres north to south.
• The burial chamber hollowed out inside Feng Mountain, as the China News Service report describes it.
• The perimeter wall that the same report says was built around the tomb.

Location & getting there

Getting to Qiaoling Mausoleum

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 桥陵 with 渭南市 and 蒲城县.