The Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum is at the
southern piedmont of Zijin Peak of Zhongshan Mountain in the eastern suburbs of
Nanjing City of Jiangsu Province.
A well-known architect named Lu Yanzhi designed the mausoleum. The construction began on March 12,
1926, and was completed in 1929. On June 1 of the same year, the remains of Dr.
Sun Yat-sen were moved from Beijing to the mausoleum. The mausoleum covers an
area of over 3,000 hectares with a construction area of 80,000 square meters. It
was open to the public in 1961.
In front of the Mausoleum there is a lune
open space, on the south of which stands the copper statue of Sun Yat-sen. Go up
the steps from the space, you can find a marble archway with two Chinese
characters that mean caritas in the middle. Behind the archway, there lies a
passageway of 480 meters long and 40 meters wide. The gate of the mausoleum is
carved with four Chinese characters of Tian Xia Wei Gong written by Dr. Sun
Yat-sen himself. Behind the gate there is a stele pavilion, and eight flights of
steps (392 steps altogether) made of granites from Suzhou City. At the end of
the steps stands the mausoleum. Chinese characters that mean the Nation, the
Civil rights, and the People's Livelihood are carved on the three arches of the
mausoleum. The interior of the mausoleum is very venerable and solemn, and in
the middle sits the white marble statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. It is a 5-meter high
statue with a vivid appearance. There are 6 bas-reliefs on the sides of the
statue seat depicting the revolution course of Sun Yat-sen. On the black marbles
that stick to the four walls, the full text of the posthumous work
Fundamentals of National Reconstruction is carved. Behind the mausoleum
there is the coffin chamber. The Chinese inscriptions of The Noble Spirit
Lives Forever and The Tomb of Sun Yat-sen are carved on the doors
respectively. In the coffin chamber there is the round marble grave. It is 5
meters deep with a diameter of 4 meters. The coffin of Sun Yat-sen is emplaced
here. A lying statue of Sun Yat-sen is in the
coffin.