Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum National Archaeological Site Park

Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum National Archeological Site Park
秦始皇陵国家考古遗址公园

Address: Qinling North Road, Lintong district, Xi’an city, Shaanxi province
Hours: 8:30 am -5 pm (March 1 to Nov 30)
8:30 am - 4:30 pm (Dec 1 to Feb 28 and 29)
General admission: 120 yuan ($18.47)
Tel: (+86-29)81399127

Located at the foot of Lishan Mountain, the Emperor Qinshihuang’s mausoleum ranks top among China's imperial tombs with grand scale and rich funerary objects. The Chinese historical masterpiece Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji) also records its marvelous designs and the huge efforts to finish it.

The two parts included in the mausoleum are the sacrificial zone and the burial zone, which cover an area of 56.25 square kilometers, equal to 78 Forbidden Cities. The grave mound used to be 115 meters high; it still has a height of 76 meters after thousands of years. The mausoleum had inner and outer city walls; the outer enceinte was as high as eight to 10 meters. Today it still has some retaining structure. The funerary pit of the terra cotta warriors lying 1500 meters to the east of the mausoleum is known as the world’s eighth miracle.

Opened to the public on Oct 2010, this national archeological park employs different plants to distinguish the sites aboveground while underground retaining the original layout and scale of the mausoleum. Its four must-sees include the exhibition halls of performers and the tomb figures of civil officials, the stone armors pit, and the bronze chariot and horse museum.