Ancient tree stands tall near Yellow Emperor tomb in NW China

A 5,000-year-old Chinese arborvitae stands at the Xuanyuan Temple near the tomb of the Yellow Emperor in Huangling county of Shaanxi province.

As the legend goes, the tree was planted by the emperor himself.

The ancient tree is now 19 meters tall, with its thickest part estimated to measure 11.6 meters in perimeter, said Liu Pan, who works at the tourist site.

Huangling is considered the location of the tomb of the Yellow Emperor, or Emperor Huangdi, who is considered to have been the founder of the Chinese civilization and the common ancestor of all Chinese people.

More than 400 Chinese people, including overseas Chinese, attended a ceremony on Thursday to pay homage to Huangdi, a ceremony traditionally held on Qingming, or Tomb-Sweeping Day.

The tree believed to have been planted by the emperor was designated as the top of the 100 famous trees in the country in 1998.

It was proved to have been artificially planted, like other ancient arborvitae in the temple, in a DNA test.

The tree has been put under protection, with its root and branches found to be more extensive as data from the radar tests in 2017 and 2023 showed.

Trees with identical genes to the ancient tree have been developed with the cloning technology applied.

On the Qiaoshan Mountain, where the temple is located, lies a forest of more than 83,000 arborvitaes, over 30,000 of which are more than 1,000 years old. The trees were planted by people who worshiped the emperor generation after generation.