Listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level, the Eastern Qing Tombs constitute the primary mausoleum complex for emperors and empresses of China’s last imperial dynasty. It is also the largest and most intact existing complex of ancient imperial mausoleums in China.

Five imperial tombs stand within the complex: Xiaoling Tomb for the Shunzhi Emperor, Jingling Tomb for the Kangxi Emperor, Yuling Tomb for the Qianlong Emperor, Dingling Tomb for the Xianfeng Emperor, and Huiling Tomb for the Tongzhi Emperor. Additionally, there are four empress mausoleums housing Empresses Dowager Ci’an (East Empress) and Cixi (West Empress), five concubine gardens and one princess mausoleum. In total, the site holds the remains of 14 empresses and 136 imperial concubines.

Marked by a cultural relic protection stele at its entrance, the Eastern Qing Tombs are situated in Zunhua City, Tangshan, Hebei Province, 125 kilometers west of downtown Beijing. Legend says the Shunzhi Emperor chose this location while hunting, and construction broke ground in the second year of the Kangxi reign (1663).

The mausoleum precinct stretches 125 kilometers from north to south and 20 kilometers from east to west, ringed by mountains on all sides. Two peaks, Yandun Mountain and Tiantai Mountain, stand facing each other directly to the south, forming a valley pass merely 50 meters wide commonly known as Dragon Gate Pass.

During the Qing Dynasty, 217 palaces, archways and memorial archways were gradually erected here, forming 15 mausoleum compounds of varying scales. All compounds radiate out from the Xiaoling Tomb of the Shunzhi Emperor at their core, arranged along the southern foothills of Changrui Mountain. Each compound consists of surrounding palace walls, Long’en Gate, Long’en Hall, side halls, square city with memorial tower, and burial mound dome. The square city with memorial tower stands as the tallest structure in every mausoleum, housing stone steles inscribed with the posthumous titles of the buried rulers in three scripts: Chinese, Manchu and Mongolian