The question remains to be answered as to why the mausoleum is located on Zijin Mountain , especially since Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who was born in Chanxiangshan of Guangdong province and died in Beijing, stayed in Nanjing for only a short time. Perhaps the answer can be found in one of his trips to Zijin Mountain.

In March 1912, when Dr. Sun was the provisional president of the then Republic of China, he once went hunting on Zijin Mountain with Hu Hanmin and others. As he gazed at the winding Qinhuai River, followed by the green mountains behind, the Ming Dynasty Tomb to the left and Linggu Valley to the right, he smiled and said to his close attendants, "The day I die, I wish to rest my body down here."

In March 1925, Dr. Sun fell seriously ill and was on his deathbed. As he was sleeping, his wife Song Qingling, He Xiangning and Wang Jingwei began to talk about his funeral. Wang suggested his remains be buried on Jingshan Mountain in Beijing. At that very moment, Dr. Sun woke up and said, "No, no, I want myself to be buried on Zijin Mountain." Everyone present was astonished and immediately consented to his request, though none of them knew where the so-called Zijin Mountain was located.

After his death on March 12, 1925, his coffin was temporarily put in the Fragrant's Mountain's Temple of Azure Clouds, while the mausoleum was being built on the southern slope of Zijin Mountain, according to his will. A grand foundation-laying ceremony was held. In 1928, the Kuomintang government designated the entire Zijin Mountain as the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and upon completion of the mausoleum, Dr. Sun's coffin was brought from Beijing to be buried there. In 1961, the mausoleum was

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