Nanjing Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum, China

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Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum

Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum is located at the foot of Zijin Mountain (The Purple Gold Mountain) in Nanjing City. It is the most attractive and the most famous among the 40 scenic spots in Nanjing City.

Here is the tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the great Chinese democratic revolutionary forerunner. If you came to Nanjing and never visited the splendid Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum, you only visited half of the city.

The spacious Sun Yat-sen mausoleum covers total area of 80,000 square meters. It is 73 meters high and 158 meters above the sea level. The whole building suggests a clock, which implies:

"The Revolution is not complete,
Comrades must pursue their efforts."

The main building in the mausoleum includes the Archway, the Tomb Road, the Mausoleum Gate, the Tablet Pavilion, the Sacrifice Hall, and the Tomb Room.

At the entrance of the tomb stands a huge granite archway. The archway was carved with two golden characters "Bo'Ai" (universal love) written by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. When you go out of the Tablet Pavilion, you will find the stone stairs lever by lever in front of you.

Climbing along the stone stairs, you will come to the main body of the mausoleum - the Sacrifice Hall and The Tomb Chamber. Above the door was inscribed with four characters "Tian Di Zheng Qi" ("Healthy Atmosphere between the Heaven and the Earth") written by Dr. Sun.

There is a 4.6-meter-high granite reposing statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the hall. It was carve by a famous French sculpture out of the Italian granite. The statue is vivid and looks alive, Dr Sun was dressed in a long robe and a mandarin jacket and sat there quietly. On the granite wall carved with his posthumous work - The article of The Fundamentals of National Reconstruction.

The keynote of the Sacrifice hall was set in white, black, and blue, which are Chinese traditional colors for mourning. However, the colorful glasses discover the Western flavor. The combination of Chinese and Western styles is just like the sprite and manner of Dr Sun, who mastered the knowledge of Chinese and Western.

The Tomb Chamber is hemisphere-close building. The tomb vault is in the middle. On the top of it is the reposing statue of Dr. Sun and his body was buried inside. The whole building is simple but momentous.

Besides it is the tomb of the great Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum is also an outcome of the ingenious architects. For example, the numerous stone stairs was design ingeniously. It has 10 sections and 392 flights in total. Every section has a lever terrace.

When you stand at the foot of the stairs and look up, you will see the continuous stone stairs. You can see the top stair but you cannot see the lever terrace, and vice versa. The figure 392 was not a coincidence. It represents the 392 million people from all nationalities in China at that time. The figure is a symbol that the 392 million people are paying respects to the forerunner who brought them the conception of democracy, freedom, and ruling by law.

The mausoleum architecture design was picking out from many of the volunteer designers. That is the reason why the Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum is the best sight in Nanjing City, which enjoys the reputation of "The Ancient Capital of Six Dynasties" and has more than 40 scenic spots.